Always second best
by CrayolaCreation
Summary: Waterloo Road is a mess with Melissa's departure, and Eddie & Rachel constantly on tenterhooks, anything could happen, but what happens when Eddie leaves and Rachel's in hospital? new friendships are formed and mysteries are unleashed, but can Melissa put her wrongs right before it's too late? And a new plan is being formed one that could change everything...
1. Chapter 1

Three adults stood in the empty, vacant classroom, and maybe it was just as well that there wasn't a fourth person present, none of the three wanted this discussion to be witnessed, and it seemed like only now were their individual flaws being outlined and criticized.

"Well, I'm not the one who's not being honest, you have been lying right from the start," Melissa said furiously, as she ignored her conscious that had finally caught up with her deceit; "you love Rachel don't you?" She asked even though she knew the answer, "so now you have to choose it's me or her," she said her voice shaking after every syllable.

The worst thing was the looks she received from Rachel and Eddie, the looks that made her instantly regret her rash words, Rachel's face had fallen, although she looked surprised at Melissa's outburst, she was disappointed yet disbelief was clearly imprinted on Eddie's face. Rachel ran from the scene, as she saw her sister's true colours finally revealed, but a part of her was determined to believe that it wasn't actually Melissa speaking but a Melissa who was under the influence of something… or someone.

Eddie didn't say anything, silence dominated the two, just this morning, Eddie was searching for a happy ending with somebody else, yet it only took a few moments to destroy a potential happy ending. He didn't need to reply to her statement, his eyes which were flickering towards the door gave the answer away.

He left, and quickened his pace, hoping to catch up with Rachel. Melissa stood alone, and flung the engagement ring across the room, as she slumped against the wall, trying to pick up the broken pieces even though there was no-one to guide her.

It was only then, that she began to question everything, especially her relationship with Eddie and Rachel. She had just as well as admitted to Eddie that she knew that he loved Rachel, so why had she fallen for Eddie when she knew he would never return her feelings?

"You cannot choose for whom you fall for," a small voice echoed in her brain, yet she knew all along that if Rachel wasn't so stubborn they would've dated before now and probably before she was employed. She wanted her sister to be happy; the one who had always guided her when she was lost, yet it was only now that she was realising how little she knew about her sister, did her sister ever have feelings for Eddie?

She loved being with Eddie, every week she spent with him felt like a single second, but a day without him was like a year without rain. She felt safe and secure with him, something she had never felt since she was a child with her big sister looking after her, he was like the big brother she never had, and he helped forget the mistakes that she had made in the past. Right from the start, she pinned him down as the dedicated type, someone who would always put his family first, and he was so kind to Philip who was going through a rough stage, perhaps these were the traits Melisa had fallen in love with…

She had ruined everything, again, this was her one last shot at happiness and she had sub-consciously destroyed it, by letting the cat out the bag so to speak, she couldn't face going back to work tomorrow and facing Eddie and Rachel the two people that were hurting the most because of her actions.

It was very fortunate indeed that when she went into the car park neither Eddie nor Rachel was around. Philip would probably never forgive her for leaving him, but she couldn't just drag him around like a lost puppy, in just a few short months he would be sitting his GCSEs and if they moved it would either break or make him. She certainly hopped that it would be the latter.

As she hopped into the taxi and gathered some small items that she wished to take on her journey, she didn't know where she was going but the journey of the unknown is probably the most exciting journey of all. Philip could stay with his Aunt, he would be better off without her.

"Everyone would be better off without you," a harsh, pessimistic voice echoed in her brain, and Melissa feared that the voice inside her head had spoken no truer words.

Where would she go? Where would she stay? There were very few available options, and each defined a different path, Melissa felt like she had reached a stalemate position in life; every single action she made had a consequence, and she wasn't sure if she was ready to face the consequences.

She went to a bed and breakfast and booked a room before dumping her stuff and heading out, she knew she would only be able to go a few days max before getting a job, but who would want to employ somebody who didn't have a reference for their last job?

She went to the pub, guaranteed this wasn't her smartest move, but it was the one where she would be able to let her worries fade into nothingness. Fortunately neither Eddie nor Rachel were around, but much to her displeasure Matt and Steph; who seemed to treat the pub as a second home were there, she tried to move discreetly avoiding their gaze, sadly sneaking around unnoticed didn't seem to be high up on the agenda.

"Hi Melissa!" Steph said all too chirpily, with a girlish giggle added to her tone, she was as Melissa noted most obviously drunk, "shouldn't you be down the aisle?" She asked, as she with the help of Matt hummed a very out of tune version of 'here comes the bride,' apparently neither of them could carry a tune when they were drunk despite the fact that they could when they were sober.

"The flight was cancelled," Melissa answered shortly, and she was surprised at how easily the lie slipped of her tongue, like she had been planning to say that lie even before she had seen the very drunken Steph and Matt.

"Shouldn't you be, I don't know…? With Eddie?" Matt started before continuing,

"Get you! Quite the relationship expert," Steph giggled, Melissa made a mental note to avoid those two when they were drunk in the future.

"Nah, I'm like the king of ruining relationships," Matt said, Melissa sighed she didn't even know that Matt was even in a relationship to begin with; well you learn something new every day…

"Join the club!" Steph said giggling as she put her drink down.

"Bye guys, tell Rach to look after Phil for me okay?" Melissa said, debating on whether to expand her message, but since she figured that it would all be forgotten in the morning, keeping it short and sweet seemed the better option. She waved to them, as they continued to drown themselves in their drink before she made her way over to the opposite end of the pub.

She was quite thankful that they didn't question about her last request, that would've made things very messy indeed, she needed to sort her life out; her husbands' being the main priority, they had been the reason why she was in this position in the first place.

But first she needed to get through the night.

**_A/N New story! I've been meaning to write this for a while, and I'm finally making a start! :) _**

**_Some of this chapter is from 'What if the baby wasn't Eddie'?' it is based on that what if and 'what if Eddie and Rachel got engaged?'_**

**_Please review it makes my day! Plus I'll give a shout out to anyone who reviews and their stories! What did you think of the chapter?_**


	2. Chapter 2

Melissa sat at the bar by herself away from the prying eyes of Steph and Matt, who she was still wary of tonight was the night, she ruled Waterloo Road out of her life, at least for the time being anyway, she simply couldn't go there and look her sister or Eddie in the eye, she had lied and betrayed them both, some things just can't be forgiven.

That first day when she went to Waterloo Road, everything seemed so simple back then; Rachel was trying to rekindle their lost friendship and even though Eddie didn't seem overly keen on her at first, opinions changed.

Ever since that first day she had an inkling of a feeling that Eddie and Rachel had feelings for each other, but they were both to proud and stubborn to admit their feelings of each other, and neither of them had been particular lucky in love before.

Why had she ignored the fact that there was a possibility that they loved each other? She dismissed it as nothing, a childhood crush that had fallen to pieces, that first night she didn't know Eddie's reasoning for asking her out. But now it all seemed far too clear, the truth was a sudden realisation that hit her like a ton of bricks, he was trying to get over his crush; on her sister, although at the time he was completely oblivious to the fact that she was her sister.

So why did she go into a relationship that's fate was doomed right from the beginning? It seemed a strange thing indeed to enter a relationship that you know is going to end in tears, but Melissa's ulterior motive was to do what's best for Philip, and unfortunately or fortunately as the case maybe Eddie had all the features she was looking for; he had a stable job, he always put her and Philip first against all odds, he would protect her, although the latter was near impossible as she refused to let him in on her past.

Ironically enough that was the same mistake her sister made nearly a year ago, but who could blame here for wanting to hide her past? She had first married she when she was eighteen, not for love but for money, she was blackmailed, she was in a checkmate position and she felt claustrophobic when she realised she didn't have a choice.

It wasn't the ideal marriage that teenagers dream of to say the least, even as a kid she had dreamt of falling in love and having a happy long marriage, sadly fate denied her dreams, as she was crushed when she fell into the trap of reality.

Soon it was dark, and the pub was starting to empty, it was strange to go through the night without a solitary, single drink, but thinking had been far higher on the agenda than drinking even if her thoughts weren't particular good ones.

She went to the bed and breakfast which was near empty at this time in the night, surprisingly only one other person was roaming around the corridor looking for the door of her apartment; which seemed bizarre given the fact that there were only about five bedrooms in the building.

"Hey there!" She said happily shaking Melissa by the hand, her voice sounded out of place and way too chirpy for this time in the night.

"Hi," Melissa said cautiously.

"What number are you in?" The woman said, "I just can't remember what room I'm in!" She said laughing as if she had just said some cheesy punch line.

"Number 4," Melissa replied, this woman was clearly insane, and positively nuts, or maybe she was just simply drunk and trying to soothe the aftershock of the bitterness of alcohol in her mouth.

"Knock on the door the number four!" The woman said, smiling and the smile must've been infectious because Melissa found herself smiling for the first time that day, "I'm Linda by the way," she said smiling.

"Melissa Ryan," Melissa replied, she guessed that she was slightly older than the woman who seemed to be in her early twenties or maybe she was just out of Uni.

"Cheer up; you look like you could use a good laugh!" Linda replied cheerfully.

"Yeah well," she said fiddling with her now empty finger, "just romance troubles I guess," she said sighing, romance troubles were just the start of it all, the less Linda knew the better, and like her previous thoughts Melissa was just a burden to everyone around her.

"Well you've just met the cursed cupid, I've never been in a successful relationship yet," Linda said as her optimism slowly began to ebb away, Melissa smiled perhaps today would be the start of a new friendship, her eyelids began to droop. But friendship could wait as she suddenly realised that she had a date with her bed that she was already extremely late for…

"Nice meeting you," she said smiling, "but I'm going to bed now," Melissa said retreating to her bedroom, and sincerely hoping that Linda wouldn't spend the night just wandering around the corridor pondering over which room she had rented, after all there were only so many times you could go up and down the same corridor.

"Bye," Linda replied, her voice fading into nothingness, Melissa barely heard her as she collapsed on the readymade bed, and collapsed into an erratic daze.

She woke up hours later, as her thoughts overwhelmed her, it seemed surreal that she was able to sleep so well after all she had been through; what she had put Philip, Eddie and Rachel too through, but now her conscious was wide awake and ready to play tricks on her.

What could she do? It seemed simple enough to just walk out Eddie and Rachel's lives, they did after all have each other, and she didn't share that tight sisterly bond with Rachel that some sister's shared, but she couldn't just leave Philip. But she couldn't take him with her, she had just left without a plan, she had no idea where she was going, and sometimes at times like this a teenage boy can be more of a hindrance than a help.

Philip was better off with his Aunt, the one with a stable job, the one who never blamed him for anything, the one she always felt second best too.

She would have to get a job, but getting a job was never easy especially when you didn't have a reference from your past employee, and asking for a reference was simply not an option, her plan for the time being was to avoid Rachel for as long as possible, and somehow when she got back she would have to make it up to Philip, she just didn't know how too.

Finally after hours of searching, she got a job as a cashier in a supermarket, it wasn't a glamorous job but it was a lot better than nothing, her only concern was that she might unfortunately bump into someone from Waterloo Road, but all things considered that was the least of her worries.

Her biggest problem of all was that no matter how hard she tried she would always be considered second best in comparison to her sister.

* * *

**A/N This is very random, I just wanted to add Linda, IDK why though. :)**

**Please review it makes my day! And for every chapter I'll advertise I waterloo Road Fanfic that I'm really enjoying reading!**

**Go and read 'Unexpected' by ReddieFan25 ****_'Really like this, please continue! xxx -I-Wish-Upon-Falling-Stars' 'this chapter was fantastic love this story so much can't wait for more xxx -Sarahabc0598' s/9524757/1/Unexpected_**** Rachel and Eddie have to face a big change but how will Eddie's daughter react?**


	3. Chapter 3

It was only her second day at the job and she was already getting fed up of it, somehow she felt at ease when she was helping others, it was like she was finally at peace with herself, plus it was easy to put herself in Candice's position or Rose's, they had all been through tough times and Melissa could relate to them, in more ways than one.

"Well if it isn't Melissa, and I live to see the day!" A voice said a voice that Melissa recognised all too well, she had thought that she had said her goodbye's to him almost five years to him when she finally snapped and left him with Philip in tow. "Got yourself a new feller eh?" He asked in a teasing tone. Melissa didn't bother to reply sarcasm was inked in his question.

Why did this have to keep happening to her? Every time she tried to rebuild her life it seemed to get knocked down again, it was as if someone was purposely trying to destroy her life, although in all fairness she was too blame for what happened at her old job. But she needed to move on from that, she was trying her hardest, but every night Philip invaded her thoughts and if it wasn't Philip it was Rachel and how betrayed she looked or Eddie with disappointment etched on his face. Dark circles had taken hostage under her eyes, and she would often feel dizzy from the lack of sleep, but she daren't tell anyone the nightmares or her worries.

She was ashamed, and she wished she could erase the past, but sadly that was beyond her reach.

"Richard," she said greeting the man, the man who made every day a living challenge, the man she wished she never married.

"When do you finish?" He said indicating to his watch.

"In an hour or so," Melissa replied vaguely hoping that this would put him off, he never liked to wait for anything, and she was hoping to post-phone the conversation they needed to have for as long as possible. Richard left whistling with ease as if there was no awkward tension between the two, but for Melissa it wasn't easy to forget the past and the mistakes she had made.

She finished her work with her mind in overdrive, she hoped that Richard wasn't there and had at least got fed up of waiting, but when he wanted something he wouldn't stop until he got it, but what exactly did he want?

"Melissa," Richard said sharply attracting her attention, it seemed like the odds weren't in her favour today, "I need to talk to you," he said grabbing her by the hand, no doubt leaving a mark at some later stage, and shoving her in the car brutally.

"Richard what are you-?" Melissa began but it was pointless, Richard was as he should be focusing on his driving, she stayed silent for a few minutes while silence dominated the two until he parked in a driveway of a posh house of some description, with ivy clinging to the side of the house.

"Melissa I need you to do something for me…" Richard began, Melissa rolled her eyes, and whatever made him think that she would do something for him? "Look Mel, I need money £5,000 to be exact," Richard continued, "and the way I see it you are in no position to argue, I know all your secrets, the secrets you don't want anyone to know, you've got a rubbish low paid job and you really are no fit mother to Philip you know, where is Philip anyway?" He said and although he barely whispered , he was threatening to take Philip away, was Melissa's horrific thought, she couldn't bare that to happen, at least he was safe with Rachel for now…

"Look if you haven't already noticed, I have a low paid job, where do you expect me to get that money? And second of all Philip isn't with me so you can't use him to blackmail me," she said as authority steamed through her tone, or at least she hoped it did.

"I don't care how you get the money, as long as you get it, isn't this your sister?" He said holding up last year's paper when Rachel's identity as Amanda had been the headlines for the news, Melissa cringed at the unwanted memory, there was no way she could get out of this situation, but how dare he bring her sister into this.

"Yes but-, stop trying to blackmail me," Melissa said with a note of finality in her tone as she hoisted the bag over the fence and sprinted to safety as far as way as possible, before bumping into someone, a man who looked younger than her, a man who replied to the name of Michael Byrne.

"Don't call it black-mail, I like to think of it as an imaginative way of getting my own way," Richard called in the near-distance as a new figure continued to approach Melissa.

"Hey, you," He said as she whizzed past him with Richard close behind, "what are you doing?" He asked curiously Melissa was in no time to reply so as a result her reply was rushed and for the best part incoherent.

"I've had a disagreement of sorts," she said quickly, Michael rolled his eyes.

"It's quite the little drama," he said then opened his car doors before noticing Richard's looming figure, "come on I have a car," he said and Melissa didn't have to think twice as she grabbed the get out of jail sign with both hands, "so how do you know Richard?" He asked somewhat curiously, and possibly far too curious for a regular village person.

"He is my ex-husband," Melissa added hastily without giving too much away, "I-I, he did awful things to both me and my son," she said finally breaking down as she released the tears that came streaming down her face.

Michael stopped at the pub, "it looks like you've had a tough day," he stated as he asked what she wanted before paying the bartender, she nodded nervously.

"Yeah, well," she was about to argue before deciding that one little drink wouldn't hurt her, plus at least she didn't have to worry about Philip weighing her down tonight, they had a couple of drinks and both were wary not to get too drunk, but drunk enough to wallow in self-pity.

Well, it's nice meeting you and how about you come back to mine for a coffee?" Michael asked smoothly, and Melissa accepted not really wanted to return to the damp room in the bed and breakfast.

"Sure," she said gracefully accepting whilst breaking her number one rule; never take someone's offer to go and have a coffee with them, but she would be lucky to find a decent hotel at this time of night and Michael seemed nice enough, but she knew all too well that looks could be deceiving.

She settled down on the couch of Michael's apartment, it was quite a cosy apartment, and she sipped her coffee silently, even though she was still dizzy from her several drinks earlier and it looked like Michael was showing similar symptoms. She didn't know what had come over her, but she leaned in and kissed him, his lips softly brushed against hers, and after just seconds the kissed began to deepen as the tension grew. She paused gasping for breath, and the morning after she had no recollection of what happened the previous night.

"Michael, Michael!" She said, slowly trying to wake him out without pushing him off the sofa, he was drowsily opening his eyes, only half awake, his mouth formed a 'o' shape, full of surprise and she could tell that he was struggling to remember her.

"My head…" He said before darting into the bathroom and throwing up, Melissa shoved some tablets into his hand and passed them with a glass of water.

"Michael, I need to go now!" She said, before grabbing her coat, and leaving her as fast as her legs would carry her, immediately regretting last night, Michael may have made Eddie seem like a faze for a few hours, but after only several hours it now felt like Michael was the one she was struggling to picture and not Eddie.

**A/N I'm going to start making the chapters longer I think :P Hopefully in a couple of chapters Mel will return to Waterloo Road and play happy families with Rachel and Philip. Also if you can think of any other deals Richard could make with Mel please say, what did you think of this chapter?**

**Please review it makes my day!**

**Dedicated to Read 'Love triangle' by her, which explores the what if's of the stories, what if Izzie didn't die? What if Nikki's mum was somebody close to the school? reddiefan25****- ****"I'm really liking this story! Can't wait for more xxx" Waterlooroadfan2012- "Update soon please xx"**


	4. Chapter 4

She couldn't believe it, how could she? The alcohol from last night had invaded her thoughts, hence the fact that she couldn't think straight at the time, Michael was a nice enough guy, but what did she know about him? Apart from the fact that he was just finishing his teachers training?

People do crazy things when they're drunk, she knew that, but she had just got out of a serious relationship (even though love had a very little part to play in it) well, just last week she was engaged to a man who had cared deeply for her and Philip! And now she had nothing…

Literally. She had nothing, nothing being the understatement of the century. She had stooped to the lowest of the low, she had fallen into a deep pit of self-pity, she was struggling to get out, and there was no-one to help her…

She went to work slowly her thoughts awry, and her pounding headache was making it even harder to concentrate, she swallowed some pain-killers that would hopefully ease the pain, but she doubted that they wouldn't be able to ease the pain of her active conscious.

What was she going to do? What was she going to do about Richard? She thought to herself, worriedly, and yet there seemed to be only one obvious answer that was staring at her right in the face. She had to go to the police, she had to, she had no other choice, but what would she say; "oh yes my crazy husband who I left a few years back is demanding me money for no apparent reason, and yes we are still married." Well that would go down well wouldn't it?

Maybe it was best to keep low key for the time being, going to the police was the last thing on her mind, she would simply explain to Richard that she didn't keep in touch with her sister anymore, and that was the truth as of a few days ago.

The next week passed slowly, and Melissa was getting anxious, thankfully Richard hadn't visited her since last week which to be honest was a blessed relief, but a new worry had taken hostage in her mind. The morning sickness, her missed period, the mood swings it all added up to one thing; she was pregnant.

Well she wasn't certain yet, but it was a possibility, she had a yet to buy a test, she was frightened of the result, what if she was pregnant? What would her next move be? She hadn't been a model mother to Philip she would be the first to admit that.

"Hi Melissa," Linda said in her usual chirpy turn, it only took her seconds to cringe from her previous statement when she saw Melissa's downcast face, "what's the matter?" She asked sincerely, and Melissa struggled to find the words to form a reply; she didn't deserve her kindness she didn't deserve anyone's kindness.

"I think I'm pregnant," she said uneasily, in return Linda shrugged her shoulders slightly flummoxed, even though she had lived across the doorway for almost a week, Melissa tried to block out her past which mainly consisted of; Richard, Rachel and Eddie.

"And that's bad because?" She asked raising her eyebrows, Melissa raised her hands up in defeat it looked like she would have to tell the story again…

"Uh, well last year my sister employed me to work at her school, and I uh, started dating her deputy, and he proposed to me…" Melissa said trying to make it not sound so bad, "and, well we broke up; and I told him that I knew he loved my sister," she finished with the finale that was the icing on the cake; everything else sounded plausible, but the fact that she dated a man that loved her sister, well that was low by anyone's standards.

"Oh," Linda said as she bit her tongue nervously her blonde hair swaying in the breeze, "have you taken a test?"

"No," Melissa said before finally breaking down, "I'm scared, what am I going to do?" She wailed almost hysterical.

"But what if you aren't pregnant?" Linda reasoned, as she opened her door and rummaged through her drawers and found a unused pregnancy test; why she even had one was beyond Melissa, but Linda who seemed telepathic at times answered the question that was playing tricks on her mind, "my friends assumed I was pregnant a while back; I wasn't of course but I keep it in emergencies…"

Melissa took the test praying that it would turn negative, time would only tell, the next few minutes was the longest pause Melissa had every witnessed, she was stepping out of the unknown, just a few vital seconds would change her life forever.

"I can't look," She said covering her eyes with her hands, but even then she saw a tiny symbol out of the corner of her eye; it was a plus, she was positive was her next downcast thoughts.

"I'm pregnant," she mumbled incoherently, Linda smiled and Melissa wondered whether she had heard any of the conversation about the matter they had discussed earlier or not, perhaps it was all an illusion, perhaps today was just a trick, an illusion, a dream.

"That's great!" Linda said, Melissa sighed.

"No it's not did you just hear what I just said?" She replied.

"Yeah, but it can get your life back on track," Linda improvised.

"The baby needs his father!" Melissa retreated and Linda sighed knowing that she had already lost the battle.

"Look, you need to relax, chillax," Linda said talking like a teenager, Melissa smiled, "how about we go bowling tonight?" She asked.

Melissa sighed in desperation for the umpteenth time in their conversation, she had just discovered she was pregnant and Linda had the great idea of taking her bowling? What was the world coming too?

"Come on! You can't change the past, so what's the point in worrying about it? You can think of a solution in the morning," Linda continued grabbing her coat.

"I uh-," Melissa replied she was on tenterhooks not sure what she would do, she was letting on the real reason she didn't want to go bowling; what if she saw someone from Waterloo Road or Richard?

"Come on!" Linda replied, and Melissa made the mental note to find Linda a boyfriend, she had way to much free time on her hands, hence the fact her favourite activity was meddling in Melissa's life.

"What if I see someone I know?" She wondered out loud, Linda dismissed this worry with ease.

"Well you don't have to talk to them, and what are the odds of seeing them! It's a Friday night and all the teens are at crazy parties!" She said, and although Melissa hated to admit it she had a valid point, there was very little chance of bumping into the pupils, but they weren't who she was afraid of bumping into.

"Fair enough," she reasoned grabbing her coat that she had dumped on the bed, what was the point of a life where you were afraid of stepping outside? Sooner or later she would have to take the risk, of socialising after all she had worked out the supermarket for several days without bumping into anyone, so why was she so paranoid? "Why bowling though?" She asked, it seemed like a peculiar choice by any means.

"Because, bowling is great! I have some great memories of bowling with my family," Linda improvised, and Melissa smiled as she sensed homesickness coming from the younger woman; although it was not a feeling she could easily relate too. The journey to the bowling alley was driven in silence, and Melissa couldn't help but feeling nervously excited, she hadn't been bowling since she was fifteen! And she wasn't entirely sure whether she could pick up a bowling ball up anymore…

They had a great time, Linda it turned out was a rubbish bowler; first of all she could barely pick up the first ball she choose, so she had to rummage around for one her since, and since then the majority of her throws had disastrously ended in a gutter ball, but she laughed it off, like she did with everything else.

Melissa was about to take her next turn, when she froze, as she stood rooted on the spot, the sight before her eyes was unbelievable, they showed no signs of betrayal, but that was the only emotion that Melissa whole-heartedly felt; betrayal.

"Melissa?" Rachel said, and Melissa looked closely at her sister, who was staring at her with a pained expression, she blinked and perhaps that was her one vital mistake for in that single sentence Rachel morphed into Linda, who was of course the one who had called her name in the first place.

Thankfully, or unthankfully as the case maybe, Rachel was still in the far end of the bowling alley- with Eddie, and that sight was enough to usher Melissa into the direction of the bathrooms. She couldn't believe it! Just one week that's all she had gone, and already they were dating as if she never existed!

Where was Philip? Melissa asked herself noting his absence, she hoped he was alright; what would he make of the two when he eventually found out they were dating? She doubted that they had already told him, since he was probably just adjusting to his new life with Rachel.

"Melissa?" Linda called as she caught sight of Melissa dabbing her eyes with a tissue, she had been crying, that much was obvious, the fact that her mascara was running just proved her current thoughts, but why?

"That was my ex-fiancée and my sister," she said sadly, "I-I can't go back out there…" She said slowly empathising every syllable that was of great importance in her sentence.

"You have to go back out there," Linda reasoned, "a) you can't stay here all night, b) our stuffs out there and c) we paid for that game so we really ought to finish it," she said dragging Melissa out forcefully; for such a small person she was actually surprisingly short. "You can't avoid your sister forever," was Linda's reason for leaving a humongous bruise on Melissa's arm.

"Watch me," Melissa replied irritably.

"Well if you were going to avoid her forever why didn't you go further away? Why stay in the same area as her?" Linda replied narrowing her eyes.

"I couldn't just abandon my son!" Melissa cried her patience rapidly running out.

"You have a son?" Linda said curiously.

"Yes!" Melissa said.

"Well then ask her how your son is," Linda said shrugging, and Melissa silently cursed herself, did Linda not listen to her previous statement earlier?

"No!" She cried.

"Fine I'll ask her!" Linda replied.

"Don't you dare, you don't even know who she is!" Melissa continued, as they stepped outside the bathroom, with Linda slightly cheering since her plan had successfully worked. She tried to stare at the floor and not make eye contact, but her glare kept following Rachel and Eddie, who looked so happy together.

"You didn't tell me that your sister was Rachel Mason," Linda exclaimed connecting Melissa's gaze to the two people she was staring at, she couldn't help but keep the surprise out of her tone. Rachel Mason was one of the most well-known figures at her university, her story was legendary; how she turned nothing into everything, and she could only hope that one day she would be able to make a big difference to somebody's life like Rachel had.

"Well," Melissa began nervously, then she covered her eyes in confusion as Eddie leaned in to kiss Rachel, and it was as if everyone else ceased to exist, to most people they were just two people madly in love, but she was her sister! And he was her ex-fiancée, at least now she could relate to Rachel when Ross dated Jill…

She ducked behind the sofa in confusion, it looked like her outburst really had set the couple on the right track, but did she want them to start dating? Could she really handle reunions with her sister and her ex-fiancée?

Sheesh, what was happening to the world?

"Oh my," Linda replied awestruck (why was another matter) but it only took seconds for her to return back to Earth, "Mel, are you okay?" Melissa wasn't okay, that was the long and short of it, she hurried into the bathroom to collect her thoughts; she couldn't believe it, she wouldn't believe it, it wasn't like they had done it out of the blue or anything, but seeing them was like receiving a bitter taste of reality.

She didn't know how long she was in the bathroom, nor did she care, Linda had disappeared deciding not to get involved in her oh-so-complicated life, she just wanted someone to talk too, and she wasn't entirely sure that Linda would understand.

She finally got up the courage to walk out and follow the plan to walk briskly and quickly past Rachel and Eddie and slip by unnoticed, Linda was nowhere to be seen and Melissa was in no position to wait for her until she was safely out of the danger zone…

"Mel?" A voice enquired and Melissa mentally slapped herself as she felt unprepared for this conversation, or more to the point she was hoping that this conversation would never happen.

"Eddie I-," She began quickly.

"Did you-?" Eddie asked referring to the date (and kiss) with her sister, he looked positively mortified and concluded with the thought of how the odds weren't in his favour…

"Yes Eddie, but I don't think that there are any words left to say," Melissa replied walking away and that was the easiest thing to do, to keep her chin up and walk away, walking away before she could make an even bigger fool of herself and before she could see Rachel seemed a pretty good idea. And most of all she had to pretend that the sight of Eddie and Rachel didn't bother her.

** A/N I bet you weren't expecting that! The next chapter may concentrate on Eddie and Rachel as well as Melissa :) What's Eddie going to do now? He's finally dating Rachel, but he's just bumped into his ex-fiancée/ his girlfriends sister... Yeah. :D did you enjoy this chapter? Please review it makes my day! :) **

**Dedicated to SarahAbc598 go and read 'Unbreakable Bonds' Eddie is living with Rachel and he has a daughter who's heartbroken when her mum suddenly leaves her, how will Rachel cope with being a mother to the girl. "Great start so far! I think Hayley is really realistic, and Rachel is just nice as usual :P I have a soft sport for imperfect family stories, can't wait to read more! " -CrayolaCreation "WOW! This is amazing! I am following this!" -I-Wish-Upon-Falling-Stars**


	5. Chapter 5

Eddie returned to the lane with disheartened thoughts, his thoughts were blurred and he was struggling to concentrate, even though it had started off a friendly gathering between his boss and himself, it handed ending that way, or continued that way… But he was going to make sure that he kept his relationship with Rachel purely professional before it was too late, too late those two words could change forever, but was it too soon to be moving on from his ex-fiancée, who also coincidentally happened to be his boss' sister?

"Eddie is you okay?" Rachel asked her voice aching with pain, she was using the same tone she used when she was consoling pupils, and sometimes the work-orientated Rachel and the home Rachel merged into one single person. "You look very pale," she commentated.

"I'm fine," Eddie assured her, but in reality he was anything but fine, then she made the own vital error of taking a step closer, and standing on her tip-toes as she slowly began to lean forward to resume their kiss, this alone was her single vital mistake, after years of debating whether or not she would be able to learn to love again, she had finally decided that against all costs this just felt right with Eddie. Here and now.

Eddie pushed her back and she almost toppled backwards as she struggled to regain her balance, "Rachel we can't do this, we need to keep our relationship professional for the kid's sake," he said lying as he improvised on the words to say, the words sounded false as he spat them out and he secretly hoped Rachel would be able to see through his pretence.

"Well okay," she finished somewhat reluctantly, as she shrugged pretending that she didn't care, but the problem was that she did care all too much, she threw the last ball with as much energy as she could muster, as she vented her anger out on a bowling bowl. It was just as well that the game was over, since the pleasant interactions between the two had vanished and had been replaced by a cold, frosty silence.

Eddie being the gentleman he was dropped Rachel off by her house, but no goodbyes were exchanged, and Rachel bit her lip preventing her from crying out in anguish, what had happened? What had gone so disastrously wrong between the kiss and when he returned from the toilet?

She slumped on the sofa, and finally broke down and did the thing she had been dying to do since he had said those five words; "let's keep our relationship professional," she cried, something she seldom did, she had never liked depending on a man since she didn't want to appear vulnerable, but Eddie was more than a simple crush he was one of her closest friends.

That day, the day that changed everything, the day where Melissa had confessed everything, not that she had any choice in the matter, that is, the day that Melissa had confirmed that Eddie loved her, Rachel and not her. The secret that Rachel had always considered a burden, she loved Eddie, and she wasn't sure when she had this epiphany, but at the time she wondered whether it was possible that he could love her too?

She sat silently, on her own and she lost all track of time, she had been silly, stupid even, Eddie didn't care about her, and as a result of her mind running away with her she was suffering the consequences of a broken heart.

"Aunt Rach?" A voice asked and Philip came into view, she was surprised to see him he had arranged to go out with Bolton and Paul, and she hadn't expected to home by midnight at the earliest, it wasn't a school night after all, so her attitude was a bit more relaxed as she welcomed the weekend with open arms.

"Hi Philip, you're home early," she said smiling, Philip checked his watch it was only ten thirty, in total honesty he had expected to be back before her, since he knew that Rachel and Eddie could talk the hind legs of a donkey especially when they were together.

"Not really," he said shrugging, and he was about to ask her how her night was when he observed how red and puffy her eyes were and decided it would be wiser not to mention anything. Maybe the plan he had cleverly conducted in his mind hadn't worked so well after all, "would you like a cup of tea?" He said, opening the tin of biscuits, 'when the going gets tough the tough breaks into their stash of cookies' was his motto after all, and what was the point of having a motto if you don't live by it?

"Okay thanks," Rachel said somewhat grateful that he wasn't pushing the conversation any further, soon he went upstairs and she too retreated upstairs with an overwhelming rush of loneliness thrust upon her.

Melissa was sad, but she wasn't entirely sure why, the sight of Eddie and Rachel hadn't affected her as much as she liked to make out, part of her had always known this would be the end result, and another part of her was thankful that the wedding never actually happened.

It was shock more than anything, shock that they had moved on quickly without so much as a second thought, and surprise mixed with betrayal, the two people who she trusted the most had turned their back on her.

"Melissa, are you still there?" Linda said anxious as if she believed Melissa had climbed out of the window in anguish, which Melissa would never do even as a last resort, she prided herself on her appearance, plus crawling through windows was never a good idea.

"Yeah," Melissa said, "are Eddie and Rachel still there?" She asked biting her lip, she didn't particularly want to bump into her sister as well, her surprise reunion with Eddie was bad enough as it was without her sister being thrown into the mix.

"Yes, she tried to kiss him but he pushed her back, and then they went," Linda reported glumly, even though she knew the whole story she prided herself on knowing true love when she saw it, and that was what she claimed Eddie and Rachel had. But was there any such thing as true love?

"Oh, no," She replied groaning inwardly, "I really need to knock some sense into Eddie…" She said making a mental note to go home and collect some more of her things which proved to be a good excuse as it so happened.

"But I thought you didn't like seeing Eddie dating your sister?" Linda mumbled as she struggled to keep up, and she was right Melissa didn't like being aware of the fact that her sister was dating her ex-fiancé, but part of her wanted them to be happy together, irrelevant of the past.

"Yes, but," Melissa said putting her hands over her face in surrender, "I don't know, the problem is that they love each other, anyone can see that, and well I can't change their feelings for each other now can I?" Melissa said.

"Fair enough," Linda said not bothering to argue, the two walked back to the bed and breakfast in silence, there were no more words that needed to be said, as silence dominated the two in the taxi ride home.

Love was a strange thing were Melissa's exact thoughts as she climbed into the stiff bed that night, just a few months ago she was head over heels with Eddie, but was that real love? Or was that some kind of fake love was there even such a thing as fake love? Why had he proposed to her if he had loved Rachel? Had he even been aware of that fact or had he just been trying to block it all out?

The next morning she grabbed her coat, and headed home, well if you could even call it that, she had lived there for a few months, but it didn't seem right to call it her home after all that happened. In total honesty she was very surprised that Eddie hadn't sold it, so it was a welcome surprise when she saw the house fully furnished with her stuff neatly placed in boxes, at least he hadn't sold it, which was her worst nightmare.

"Melissa," Eddie said greeting her as she walked through the door, he didn't seem surprised to see her, more to the point he seemed faintly amused, but the smirk was soon wiped off his face, as Melissa slapped his cheek… hard.

"Ouch, what'd you do that for?" He said biting his lip and preventing him from screaming out in anguish.

"You're an idiot," Melissa claimed stepping back, that slap felt good, even though she had deliberately hurt her sister by dating the man she loved, although her sister had perfected the art of hiding her true feelings, she still felt a wave of protectiveness not to let Eddie break her sister's heart.

"Okay, care to explain?" Eddie replied rubbing his cheek, was this an example of normal behaviour from the real Melissa?

"Yes, sources tell me that you and Rachel left the bowling alley unhappy, minutes after you bumped into me, and I can safely bet anything that you told her to keep your relationship professional or something," she finished smoothly.

"How did you know?" Eddie questioned, Melissa smirked it was only a logical guess by any means; this was after all the sort of thing Eddie would say.

"I have my sources," she finished smirking, "but do me a favour alright? Just go over her house and make it up to her, please," Melissa pleaded, she hated doing this and trying to play cupid in this situation, but the couple deserved to at least be happy, even if they were just friends regardless of the past.

"Why are you doing this?" Eddie questioned.

"Because you love each other, and I'm pretty sure all the staff at Waterloo Road will go crazy if you don't start dating, honestly," Melissa said rolling her eyes, "and I'm sorry," she finished shaking Eddie's hand.

"Where are you going?" Eddie asked.

"I'm sorting my life out, and Eddie," Melissa finished.

"Yeah?" Eddie replied.

"Forget about us, pretend it's never happened, if you do eventually date Rachel don't feel guilty," she finished reading his thoughts she simply wouldn't be able to stand it if they broke up because of her when she wasn't even present during the argument. Fingers crossed that it would work out for both her sister and Eddie.

She collected the last few remaining boxes and loaded them in the taxi, "look Melissa, why don't I drive you to wherever you're going? It'll cost you a fortune, why don't you visit Rachel and Philip? They both miss you," Eddie said and Melissa gratefully accepted the offer of using his car, she gave him the address and he looked at it with raised eyebrows but he didn't say anything more.

Linda was standing by the door yelling into her phone, when she caught sight of the car driving near she hung up and made her way to greet Melissa, "hi Mel!" She said before acknowledging Eddie's presence a few moments later, "and you must be Eddie…I'm Linda it's nice to meet you," she said shaking his hand.

Eddie gave a small smile and greeted her before carrying the boxes upstairs, silence dominated the two, and Melissa made a desperate attempt to break the silence, "Linda's training to be a teacher," she said.

"Is she?" Eddie began absentmindedly.

"Yeah," Melissa said and that's when the conversation suddenly stopped as she struggled to think of another sentence to say, Eddie finished unloading the car with the few remaining boxes, and was about to get into the car when he asked the question he had been dreading to hear the answer of.

"Are you coming to see Rachel and Philip?" He asked curiously, part of him wanting her to accept his offer, but another part of him wanting her to decline his offer when he thought about how much pain had been bought upon both Rachel and Philip because of Melissa.

**A/N Hey thanks for reading! Please review it makes my day! **

**Do you want Mel to visit Rachel and Philip? Or not?**

**Go and visit WritingWhat'sOnMyMind and check out her story 'Within a fingernails reach' co-written by ReginaMills96 Can true love conquer all? "Oh, that's all I can say :O please continue!" -CrayolaCreation " Really great start! Obviously I wish it was Eddie, but I'm still enjoying it!xxx" -ReddieFan25**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6.**

Eddie received no reply to his query, Melissa had pondered over denying his request but she figured that Eddie wouldn't take no for an answer. And even know his narrowed eyes glared at her almost challengingly.

"I don't think," she began but her efforts died in vain.

"You need to make it up to Rachel and Philip," he replied smirking, stating the obvious, and he added the extra bit of information knowing Rachel would be more understandable if she knew why he called the date of so suddenly, well at least he hoped that would be the case.

"Fine," she said huffing, it wasn't like she was being given any choice, and it would help if she was in Eddie's good books, after all he was now in her debt…

Eddie was quite frankly surprised at how quickly she agreed but he wasn't going to ponder over it, any false move he made could lead to her changing her mind abruptly all he had to do was play his cards right and make it up to Rachel before she saw Melissa.

They drove in silence, both equally nervous, neither of them wanted to be in this situation, but they knew it was completely necessary that they overcame the obstacles that were lying in the path, although Melissa didn't see the problem in her previous method in 'just avoiding Eddie and Rachel.' It was a shame that Eddie disagreed with her plans so much, how would Rachel react? How would Philip react? Would either of them be able to forgive her?

Eddie told her to stay in the car whilst he rang the doorbell and chatted to Rachel about well everything, excluding work of course, but then again work cropped up into every conversation when Rachel was involved.

"Rachel," Eddie began as he presented a bunch of pink roses from behind his back, he had taken great care to memorize the fact that whilst Melissa preferred red roses Rachel had a soft spot for pink roses.

"Thank you," Rachel said taking the roses carefully, "but I thought-," she began slightly bewildered at Eddie's sudden change of heart.

"I'm sorry, the reason I acted so strange, is that… I bumped into Melissa," he finished, and Melissa silently scowled, there was certainly no beating around the bush that's for sure. Rachel's face darkened upon hearing the name, and Melissa wondered if Rachel was going to be as forgiving as her previous thoughts.

"You did?" She demanded angrily her blazing eyes shedding tears, as she remembered the meltdown involving Eddie and her sister and how she was left to pick up the pieces.

"Yeah, in fact," Eddie continued oblivious to both Rachel and Melissa's rising concerns, as he ignored the frantic gestures made by Melissa and the fresh tears in Rachel's eyes, "I persuaded her to come," he said gesturing for Melissa to show her face. Melissa was in a dilemma she didn't want to hurt her sister's feelings any more than she already had, but she also didn't want Eddie's dream reunion to crumble in front of her very eyes.

"Hi," she said meekly not wanting to look directly in Rachel's eyes, she was expecting a 'hello' or maybe a small, yell but what she got was not what she was expecting, Rachel's hand fell in contact with her cheek, she rubbed her cheek; not because it was a particularly hard slap but because of the pure shock of it.

"I want to know why you came here, because it seems pretty clear that you didn't come here because you were worried about your own son, so unless that's the reason you came here, get out," Rachel said angrily and Melissa felt her duty to oblige, as she craned her neck to see Rachel's point of view. She called a taxi and left shrugging at Eddie, she had after all kept up her part of the deal, it wasn't her fault that Rachel wasn't as forgiving as either of them hoped.

Rachel was furious, and not just at Melissa either, most of her anger towards Melissa she had vented out during the slap and right now she was feeling relatively calm about her sister, but most of her anger was directed at Eddie. How dare he try and get even more involved with her family life!? He would never understand her history when it came to Melissa, this scenario of; Rachel helping Melissa, then Melissa going after something Rachel secretly wanted and then wreaking havoc, was very familiar to her, only this time it wasn't something it was someone. She was sick of her sister taking advantage of her, this would be the last time she was sure of it.

"What was that for?" Eddie demanded confused.

"You don't get it do you? Melissa maybe my sister, but she always does this; take advantage of me," Rachel replied sharply.

"But I thought you would have been happy to see her, what about Philip?" Eddie asked making one desperate attempt to win the argument.

"Look, it's pretty clear that she didn't come here to see Philip," Rachel stated, "stop getting involved with my family life, you'll never understand what I had to put up with when I was Philip's age, they were the darkest days of my life, I didn't just have myself had to take care of, I was responsible for Melissa and James as well…" Rachel said her voice bland, those were memories that she had locked away at the back of her mind a long time ago, and she had mentioned James at the slip of her tongue. They had all coped with the tragedies of their lives in different ways; her becoming a prostitute, Melissa marrying for money and James probably found it the hardest to cope.

"Rachel please listen to me," Eddie began, "if we can just talk, then maybe I can understand better…"

"Talking won't change the past will it?" Rachel said her eyes flashing a sure sign of danger, "you have no idea how many times I have wished I could erase the past, but guess what? I can't."

"Rachel, how am I supposed to help you when you won't let me in?" Eddie began, "please, how can we be in a relationship when I know nothing about your childhood?" Eddie continued.

"I'm not ready, and neither are you," Rachel replied.

"What do you mean?" Eddie replied confused.

"I still remember the day you almost quit when you found out about my past, the day still haunts me," Rachel finished with a note of finality in her tone.

"Look Rach, I acted rashly okay?" Eddie began trying to smooth over the conversation but like Melissa his efforts died in vain.

"No, Eddie, we can't go on like this," Rachel said quietly opening the door as the flowers fell with a quiet thud on her doorstep, Eddie left with a look of sadness apparent on his face, but she tried consoling her that this was the right thing to do, after all he would never be able to understand anything when it came to her childhood. She barely even understood her childhood at the best of times…

She slumped her back against the wall as she allowed herself to cry, against all odds she did still love him but was she ready to let him in and break down the barriers that she had built up against her?

Philip was surprised when out of the corner of his eye he saw Eddie leaving his aunt's house, he had hoped they had made up but as he drew closer he saw Eddie clearing a speck of dirt from his eye, or was it possibly a tear? Philip had never seen Eddie cry but things must've been pretty bad if he was leaving his Aunt's house in this state…

Rachel sighed as she finally got up, she would just have to face the truth, in Eddie's eyes she would always be second best to her sister, otherwise why would he have made such a big effort to bring her over? Especially when he knew how much Melissa had hurt her…

The next few days passed in a blur, it was quite thankful that on Monday Eddie had a full day of classes so he had an excuse to avoid Rachel, but when they had staff meetings with the other members of staff, Rachel would bring up a proposition and Eddie wouldn't bother to comment on it, or vice versa.

Even the staff were beginning to notice the tensions rising when every the two were in the same room, and as usual Steph took great pleasure in gossiping about the two whenever neither of them was present. "Gosh," Was all it took for Steph to say, after another Rachel and Eddie fiasco and they would immediately catch her drift.

"Does anyone know what's happened between them?" Matt asked innocently, wondering what had got their feathers ruffled, and as usual Rachel and Eddie had been sworn to secrecy about their argument.

"No, it must've happened sometime the weekend," Tom said not looking up from his newspapers, but the conversation was silenced as Eddie came in.

"You lot coming to the pub tonight?" Eddie asked, he knew that the answer was a definite yes for both Steph and Matt but the others had other things to do as well as spend all their time (and money) at the pub.

"Deffo," Tom said, before daring to ask the question that had been playing tricks on everyone's mind, "what's happening between you and Rachel?" He asked but the only answer he got was from the silence as Eddie looked away deliberately not looking at him in the eye.

Eddie went to the pub later with Tom, Grantly, Steph and Matt, (which was hardly surprising since they spent their whole lives in the pub anyway) he pretended to act like everything was normal, but it was the farthest thing from normal that you could possibly find. Everything was a mess, and all he wanted to do was forget all his worries just for a few hours no matter how unprofessional that sounded.

On Friday there was an LEA meeting an Eddie had already formulated a plan that nobody knew, not even Tom and especially not Rachel who would go ballistic if she happened to find out what he was planning. He then felt a small chuckle rise up his throat as he remembered the time he had counted on talking about the new ideas for the school from memory and how Rachel had to take over since his ex-wife had left his son with him… At the time he thought he would be mad at Rachel for weeks, but as usual they managed to laugh it off, and he was quite thankful to her because of how closer he was to Michael now.

The meeting went smoothly, neither Eddie nor Rachel were particularly chatty, but at the end of the meeting Eddie made his announcement, "I'm very sorry but I'm going to leave Waterloo Road…" He said avoiding looking anyone directly in the eye. Everyone looked surprised, disappointed and sad, all except Rachel who kept a neutral expression on her face; she was doing what she was best at; hiding her emotions well. But inside she was outraged, how dare he try and undermine her in front of the LEA.

When they went outside quietly, realisation dawned on her, this might be the last time she would ever see Eddie, but the thing she was struggling to determine was; was she glad that she would never have to endure the pain he caused her again? Or would she miss him and the mysterious ways he had of brightening up her day?

**A/N Did you expect that?! Poor Rachel and Eddie! :) How will Rachel cope with Eddie's sudden departure? And who is James? Do you want to learn more about him!?** **What would you like to happen next? Fear not! I have a plan! :P Please review it makes my day!**


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning Rachel felt like someone had thrown a bucket of cold water over her, realisation had finally sunk in, Eddie was gone, they were over as a couple, he was never coming back and he was erased from her and Philip's life. She didn't know what to do, how could she even begin to explain to the staff how he had left without saying goodbye? Or even worse how would the pupils react? And what about Philip Eddie was the closest thing to a fatherly figure that Philip had?

She had gone through some rough patches with Eddie at the past; what with him discovering her past being the main one, and when she almost quit her job out of guilt and him originally hating her when she claimed the job he secretly wanted but in the past they had always smoothed things over. He was all she ever wanted but he could never be hers.

"Hi, Aunt Rachel I'm going to Bolton's okay?" Philip said breaking the overwhelming silence that had invaded the kitchen.

"Philip there's something I need to tell you," Rachel began deciding that it would be easier just to spit the dwelling thought without any second thoughts, Philip stared at her curiously as a stern look crossed his Aunt's face as she snapped back into her head teacher alter ego. "Eddie, I mean Mr Lawson," she said hastily correcting herself, "well he left Waterloo Road."

"Why?" Philip asked he wasn't intending to say it out of loud but it just slipped out, this was last scenario he had painted in his mind when his Aunt announced those dreaded words 'there's something I need to tell you.'

"Well he got a job elsewhere," Rachel said irritated at Eddie, how he dare leave her to pick up the pieces?! He was a coward, how could he leave without explaining to Philip and everyone else the true reason of his departure.

"But he loves you and you love him," Philip said spluttering, didn't either of them get it? They were the reason that his mother had left (well that and her bigamy) he had seen the way his Aunt's smile brightened when Eddie walked in and vice versa, they had that spark that he dreamt of having with Flick.

"Look Phil," Rachel said yawning even though it was only the morning, "you need to focus on your studies, everything happens for a reason okay," she said trying to spin a positive note on the conversation.

"If everything happens for a reason why did mum leave me?" Philip asked annoyed.

Rachel sighed this was the conversation she had been trying to avoid since Philip had arrived, how could she make everything seem okay, when she was in reality as mad at Melissa as Philip was? "Your mum loves you, she just… needed a break," was the answer she settled for.

"No she doesn't, she blames me for her marriage not working out," Philip replied with a note of finality in his tone.

"No, don't blame yourself that's her fault, she was the one who lied, not you," Rachel said but Philip wasn't listening as he headed outside with his hands in his ears as he childishly blocked her out. Rachel sighed everything was going from bad to worse, and there was nothing she could do without it. She just had to accept Eddie was gone, and find a replacement in the time being.

She went to bed that evening feeling empty and alone, Eddie was the one who put that smile her face in the morning, why had he gone when she needed him most? And as she looked back on the order events, she had realised how petty their argument had actually been, she was insecure about things that had happened in the past, Eddie making a split second decision to leave last year, and when he asked her out and then flirted with her sister later that evening.

There was one suitable candidate that she thought would fit the role as a deputy head and a science teacher; she would convince Tom and Kim to join her, she wasn't sure if she could face Eddie's possible replacement on her own. The candidates name was Chris Mead and she tried to feel optimistic by amusing herself of what he could bring to the school, but her thoughts darkened as she remembered that he would never be able to live up to Eddie's standards.

They were going for lunch at some place that Rachel had never been to before; both Tom and Kim were surprised when Rachel informed them of Eddie's sudden departure but they didn't push the conversation any more, and both seemed pleasantly surprised at how quickly Rachel had found a replacement for Eddie. But then again she reminded herself, she had never really dated Eddie they had only had that one solitary kiss. That one kiss that said all the words that they never got a chance to say.

"Hi," she said meekly greeting Kim and Tom.

"Hey," Tom replied, "so what's this Chris fellow like?"

"He seems alright," Rachel said taking a split second to ponder over her rash decision of deciding to meet this person so quickly.

"Well from what I've heard-," Kim began but she was cut off abruptly.

"Well," Tom said looking at Kim directly in the eye, "we'll have to trust Rachel's opinion then won't we," he said sending her a challenging look.

"Ah! Rachel!" A voice called, and Rachel quietly composed herself as the new voice bought and ends to Tom and Kim's banter, at a first glance Chris seemed open and friendly, but then again first impressions weren't all that accurate.

"Tom Clarkson head of English," Tom said introducing himself firstly, Rachel had decided that Tom should be given a higher place of responsibility, since he had proved himself to be a dedicated member of staff and someone who would go the extra mile to help pupils.

"Kim Campbell head of pastoral care," Kim said quick to follow Tom's example, Chris shook hands with both of them and Rachel felt no need to make a big introduction since he already knew who she was. They talked for a while and Rachel was most certainly the quietest as she silently seized Chris up, would he live up to Eddie's standards? She wasn't sure…

"Rachel you've been awfully quiet," Chris said quietly.

"Don't worry mate, she's probably just seizing you up see if you could make a good teacher," Tom joked as if reading Rachel's thoughts, more often than not he would find himself thinking about Izzie even though he was dating Davina.

"Should I be worried?" Chris asked curiously.

"No, don't worry can you start on Monday?" Rachel asked quickly bringing an end to the silence that Tom and Kim were taking in turns to break. Chris looked relieved as he shook her hand, Monday would be the start of a new beginning and Rachel hoped that it would be a good one.

Monday went fine; Chris had a relatively good first day, well better than her first day anyway! She smiled as she remembered how Eddie had been less than impressed by her new ideas, and how Mika had been sick on her! She found herself smiling at the mere memory, some memories she found were so strong that they could take over your whole body.

She missed Eddie more than she had ever thought, she had never even considered him leaving before, he had been like the rain; she needed him more than she ever knew, she had taken him for granted as a fixed part of her life; one that would never move or go anywhere. They had spent nearly two years together, and each memory; even the ones where they argued put a silly, dopey smile on her face.

Philip came to the office later that afternoon like he normally did, "Rachel I'm sorry," was the first thing he said and she assumed that he was referring to the argument that they had on Saturday. "Thank you," were his final words.

"Thank you for what?" She asked pleasantly surprised that she didn't have to put up with a grumpy teenager for the evening.

"For being there, it's just I'm so used to taking care of mum…" Philip said and Rachel understood Philip had never got the chance to be a child; even when he was living with his mum; he had to look after her, hence the fact that he had to balance a part time job as well as school; in his eyes school work had stopped coming a priority when money was running short.

She understood where Philip was coming from, when she was younger she ended up looking after Melissa and James, those were dark times, her father was barely sober, she had to get a job to support the family, all those things had resulted in her being expelled, and she didn't want Philip to go through what she had gone through.

"It's okay," she said, "you've had a lot to deal with over the past few weeks," she said smiling, but her smile withered as she felt a small rush of panic creep over her. The worry was starting to take over her; Philip, Eddie, Melissa. Even though she wanted to forget about the latter she was still her sister by blood, Chris Eddie's replacement, the list would go on, and what was worse the dreams had returned. The dreams that made her question everything, the dreams that had persuaded her to employ Melissa as an ally, she may have light-heartedly called the dreams but they were closer to nightmares.

The next few days passed in a blur as she woke up wondering where she was, sometimes she would dream that she was a teenager again looking after Melissa and James, other times she would dream of the fire, and there was even the odd occasion where she dreamt of Denzil and the gun only in this version he actually shot her. Rachel shivered at the painful memories, as she felt dizzy and nauseous as she walked up the stairs.

If Eddie was there he'd be able to soothe her and tell her that everything was alright, but the most painful part was that he wasn't there, and she was going to do everything possible to avoid breaking down in front of Chris, Tom and Kim. To them she was just their boss who kept up her professional alias at all costs. She had almost reached the top stair when she stumbled and she felt herself falling back as her nightmare became a reality.

Tom and Chris were the first people who saw her who had both been enjoying a cup of coffee and listening to the banter in the staff room, "Rachel, Rachel?" Tom asked, as he examined his boss carefully wondering if it was an accident or whether it had happened on purpose, Chris swung open his phone and called for an ambulance. Chris was surprised; it wasn't on purpose he had figured out that much, but exactly what happened?

Tom ushered pupils from entering the scene by convincing them to go another way around the school, even if it was the longer way, he found Chlo and asked her to find Philip, he needed to be alerted of what had happened.

Philip came into the hallway confusion apparent on his face, his face fell and the terror reigned on his face as he caught sight of his Aunt; the only stable person in his life, "what happened?" He managed to stammer his voice trembling after every syllable, and both teachers felt a surge of sympathy for the teenager.

Rachel was taken to the hospital on the stretcher, it had been decided that Tom who had a relatively calm day planned with a few free lessons would join her as well as Philip, and whereas Chris had to make sure that the school ran smoothly in her absence.

"Sir is she going to be alright?" Philip asked genuinely scared, why did bad things always seem to happen to the people who mattered to him most?

"I don't know," Tom muttered staring at Rachel's pale and lifeless face, "all we can do is hope," he said but Philip's hope sank, all his life all he had done was hope, but what good had hoping ever done? He had hoped that his mum would sort out his divorces and come back for him, but neither of those things had happened had they?

**A/N Oh, dear poor Rachel :( Looks like things aren't going so well without Eddie... Anyway thank you for the SIX REVIEWS, that is absolutely amazing! I'm really happy hence the fact that I uploaded early! :)** **So question time;; what will happen to Philip if Rachel is in hospital? Which character would you like him to go and live with?!**


	8. Chapter 8

Tom and Philip waited nervously as the nurse checked Rachel out, little conversation was made as Tom felt as if Philip's nervousness was contagious, and the nurse came out a few hours later as she peered over her clipboard looking at the two.

"Hello, Miss Mason will be fine; may I ask what relation you are to her?" She asked peering at the two, as she analysed there every move.

"Well Philip is her nephew, and I'm her co-worker, and I found her after she fainted," Tom exclaimed and the nurse looked suspicious for a moment before continuing.

"Is there any family members I can contact?" She asked and Philip stiffened as Tom tried to prepare an answer, this was the awkward part aside from Melissa he knew next to nothing about Rachel's family, and well Melissa had left without a word; in fact he was still completely clueless as to why she had left in the first place.

"She has a sister, but I, I don't know, I don't think they were particularly close," he said somewhat awkwardly, "she didn't like to talk about the rest of her family," he finished with a note of finality in his tone.

"Mum left a few weeks ago," Philip added nervously, "she just left without so much of a goodbye," he said slowly with a note of bitterness in his tone, and Tom felt a surge of sympathy towards the teenage boy whose life was crumbling down right in front of him, the nurse also looked somewhat sympathetic as her features softened making her look almost kind.

"I'm sorry," she began, "it seems that Miss Mason fainted as a result of stress, it also appears that she has been having anxiety attacks more frequently than usual over the last few weeks," she continued sadly and both Tom and Philip exchanged nervous glances, neither of them had been aware of this, and that was the most worrying thing about it. If neither of them knew what hope did the rest of the school have of figuring out about how Rachel wasn't copying?

"Right, so what now?" Tom said grimly, the outcome whatever it would be seemed grim at a first glance.

"She will be staying in hospital for the next at least under strict supervision; it is advised that she doesn't return to work until at least another two weeks, since this is the cause of all of this, Philip do you have someone to stay with?" The nurse finished, and after she asked the final question she knew it was a bad move on her account as she received withering glares from both Tom and Philip.

"We'll figure something out," Tom suggested.

"How old is he?" The nurse asked and it was almost as if Philip wasn't there at all.

"Fifteen nearly sixteen," Philip chipped in.

"Well we could see if there's a place available in the local care homes…" The nurse said trailing off, but Tom knew straight away that this would be a bad idea, in a few weeks he would be sitting his GCSEs, the next few months would be the most important time of his life, and moving home into a new environment could jeopardise his entire future.

"Look I'll figure something out," Tom said, "right now I have to get back to work I have Year 12 this afternoon," he said glancing at his watch and gesturing for Philip to follow him, whether he liked it or not, he knew for a fact that Rachel wouldn't want Philip missing school on account of her.

"Sir," Philip asked as they drove off to school, "what's going to happen to me?" He asked Tom didn't answer, as he lead Philip to his classroom and explained to Mrs Haydock why he had been absent for the majority of the lesson, Mrs Haydock nodded and she couldn't help but give a small gasp of surprise as she discovered the truth. The truth would certainly be the gossip of the staffroom this lunchtime, but there was very little Tom could do about it.

Tom returned to his class as he thought about what could happen next, what would happen to Philip? Although he treated Philip like any other pupil he felt a surge of sympathy towards him, in a few months the boy had lost everything; his mother had left him, his aunt was in hospital, he struggled to fit in, his friends didn't care about him or his feelings. He knew that he couldn't look after him; that was simply out of the question, his step-daughter was in her last stage of pregnancy, his girlfriend was having doubts about their relationship, he had enough problems without adding Philip into the mix. But maybe one of the kind hearts in the staff room would take pity on him and look after Philip? He knew full well that Rachel wouldn't be able to rest until she knew Philip was in safe hands.

Five minutes towards the end of the lesson, he was summoned by Chris, he had fully expected this, and he walked to Rachel's office where Chris was sat looking very uncomfortable, "Tom, how was everything at the hospital?" He asked.

"Not good I'm afraid," Tom said, "Rachel has been having anxiety attacks at the faints were a result of stress, she will be in hospital for a week, but it's recommended that she doesn't go to work for another two," he said he hated being the bearer of bad news, and he saw Chris' heart sink as the hope in his eyes evaporated.

"Oh, what now?" He asked curiously, just a single morning being in charge of the school was enough, he was out of his depth and he didn't like being in charge of anything and calling the shots, every decision he made no matter how small it came with its doubts, and he had already began to worry about his judgement.

"Well, we will have to inform the LEA, and get a replacement head for the time being," Tom finished, "and Philip will have to go to a care home, or something," he said, "could you?" He asked and it was worth a shot.

"Sorry mate, no can do," Chris said and he didn't offer any further explanation but Tom didn't question it any further, "have you asked the others?" He asked nervously and Tom shook his head.

"Maybe Matt, Steph or one of the others?" He said before mentally slapped himself before remembering that Steph was still mourning over the death of her adopted daughter Maxine, "uh, sorry I forgot," he said sheepishly.

"I'll ask them," Tom promised, "you coming I don't want to be the sole bearer of bad news," he said with a ghost of a smile that had managed to creep its way up on his face, as he tried to lighten the mood, Chris nodded, and the two made their way to the staffroom with downcast expressions on their faces.

The staffroom fell silent as the two walked in, Tom correctly guessed that Steph had already informed them of what happened but even she didn't know the whole story, "Miss Mason was taken to hospital earlier this morning, she won't be returning for another two weeks, we will be informing the LEA so that they can get a replacement for the time being," Tom said incoherently as the words spilt out of his mouth like cold coffee.

The staff nodded before going back to reading or chatting or making coffee but Tom hadn't got to the hardest bit yet thankfully Chris took over, "the thing is Philip will be put into the care system for the time being, and knowing Rachel she won't rest until she knows that Philip is safe hands, so if one of you could temporarily look after Philip…" He asked worry etched on his face.

"No way," Grantly said and he was the first to reply a couple of other staff members shook their head, "why don't you do it if it means so much to you?" Steph asked pointedly as she looked up from the magazine.

"Come on I have enough on my plate with Chlo, Donte and the new baby, and let's be honest some of you are lucky that you still have a job," Tom said sharply indicating his glare towards both Steph and Grantly who both did as little work as possible but still managed to get away with it.

"Sure why not?" Matt said shrugging, "I missed having a teenager in the house," he said, smiling, whilst Grantly sent him a; "are you insane?" look.

"Thanks mate you're a life saver," Tom said.

"Just call me Matt the life saver," Matt joked, before finding Philip and bringing up this proposition to him, it must've gone well since later that day he filled in several forms; which wasn't that hard, since he was able to reuse the forms he used when fostering Sam, and later that day the care worker announced that Philip could stay with him for the time being. When Matt told Philip the news with a beaming smile on his face, Philip remained emotionless and only gave a feeble, 'thank you' before returning to finish his conversation with Bolton and Paul.

Philip went to collect his stuff that afternoon, the house seemed so empty it was almost eerie, he got a bag full of stuff that had remained unpacked from the time when he moved to his Aunts in the first place and chucked a few random items from his desk into his bag, before claiming that he was ready to go. Packing had never been a problem, he was used to it, even when he was younger, he very rarely spent months in the same house with his mother, she was always on the move, and he was always dragged along with her, only this time she had gone without him.

"You ready?" Asked Matt and Philip nodded smiling as he fingered the guitar puck in his pocket despite the fact that he had never bothered to learn how to play.

"Yeah," he said simply as they went outside, he was about to get into the car when he locked eyes with the person that he had never thought he'd seen again.

"Philip," the voice asked, "what are you doing?" The voice said as the figure drew near, it was Eddie, the person who was like a father to him, the one who was going to marry his mother, the one who broke his Aunt's heart, the one who had left him just like his mother had.

Philip didn't reply and Matt stepped in clearly confused, he had thought Eddie had got a new job somewhere (whenever anyone asked Rachel where he went she only gave very vague answers) if that was the case why was he hanging about on the streets where the house of the sister of his ex-fiancée was located? "Rachel's in hospital," he said slowly empathising every syllable, "how's your new job going?" He asked politely.

"It's alright," Eddie began sticking to the lie, but he was surprise why was Rachel in hospital? "You alright Philip?" He asked and Philip pointedly looked away, as he turned his head so only the back of his head was visible to Eddie and Matt.

"What is the school you're working at called?" Matt asked.

"It's called…" Eddie began, and his phone started to vibrate furiously, "never mind, I have to take this, okay, bye…" he said confirming Philip's suspicions that the new job Eddie had taken up that caused him to leave Waterloo Road was non-existent, otherwise why else would he dodge the question like that? Matt was equally as confused, but he knew that whatever the real reason for Eddie leaving Waterloo Road it was quite frankly none of his business.

The two drove in silence as silence dominated their conversation, there was nothing more to be said between the two.

**A/N Please review it makes my day, who would you want to be Rachel's replacement, it can be anyone from ANY series :) The next chapter will have quite a few Matt and Philip bonding scenes :) as well as a Philip and Rachel scene. Thank you to all the lovely reviews, and I've decided that if I get five reviews then I'll update later tonight. **


	9. Chapter 9

"Philip, we're here," Matt said trying to adopt a cheery tone but he failed dramatically as he noticed the teenager biting his lip as he tried to stop the tears, but could he really blame him? The last few weeks for him had caused enough drama to last a lifetime, for Philip the drama was never-ending, and seeing the person who had almost taken on the role of his step-father just added flames to the already burning fire.

Philip's bags were carried to the room and Philip stood back in awe, as he took in his surroundings, it was a nice house to say the least, each room was furnished with paintings, photos and random scraps of music. At a first glance it looked incredibly tidy, but Matt later assured him that he hid all the mess in the cupboard at the back of the room.

"This is your room," he said showing Philip to his room which had beige walls, a set of pine coloured furniture and he hastily made the bed which was crumpled into a few sheets making the room more presentable. "It'll look better with your stuff in it…" He assured Philip but he seemed unsure as he spoke the words.

"Thank you sir," Philip said as he struggled to think of anything else to say, the words sound familiar to him as if he had rehearsed them from the script, but he hoped that he sounded genuine enough even so. He didn't know what he had done to deserve this kindness, but he wasn't about to complain.

"Call me Matt, so do you want to pack?" Matt said awkwardly as he tried to break the silence, Philip nodded silently, and he went to leave the teenager, he hadn't expected it to be like this, unlike Sam, Philip struggled to make conversation and he was in one sense the exact opposite of Sam.

"I don't get it," Philip said silently; and he could've been saying it to himself for all Matt knew, he spoke the words silently voicing his thoughts, Matt retraced his steps as he sent the boy a questioning look. "Why are you helping me?" He asked sincerely as confusion echoed his thoughts.

"Because…" Matt began but he struggled to think of a single possible explanation; why exactly had he fostered Philip? Was it because he felt sorry for the boy? Was it because he felt in debt to his boss? There were a million possible explanations but none of them felt fitting to explain to a fifteen-year old boy.

"Bad luck follows me," Philip said glumly, "whenever things start to look up, it all goes wrong for me," he said sadly.

"I'm sure that's not true-," Matt hastened to explain, but Philip was determined not to listen to him and he shook his head sadly, in total honesty Matt couldn't blame Philip for his cynicism, he had been through a lot, and Matt couldn't even begin to relate to his situation in the slightest.

"Well I'll be making pasta for tea okay?" He asked returning to the kitchen, as he left Philip to his thoughts, which was probably the worst thing he could've done, the feeling that Philip was most to was being alone, but it was the feeling he dreaded the most.

Why him? He thought quietly to himself, why did everything have to go wrong for him? Just a week ago he was looking forward yet silently dreading the prospect of having a new family, now his mother had abandoned him, the closest thing he had to a father had also left without a word, he never really knew where he stood with his friends at school and his Aunt was in hospital.

Matt called him a couple of hours later, and they ate in silence, not a word spoken between the two of them, silence dominated the conversation, and after Philip finished his attention drifted to the guitar and the sheets of music that were scattered all over the place.

He wandered over to take a closer look at them, and fingered the guitar gently as he recalled the list of things he promised he would do before he died; playing the guitar being one of them, sadly those dreams had faded away as started to see every day as a game of survival for him and his mother, and after all that time, all she did was abandon him after all those years he spent trying to make their situation better however dreary it was.

"Do you know how to play the guitar?" Matt asked as he saw Philip's intense gaze connected with the guitar as concentration scrawled itself over his face as he tried to decipher the sheet music; which wasn't easy since his knowledge of music was limited to the few classes he had paid attention in.

"No, I would like to though," Philip said wistfully as he deliberately avoided making eye contact with Matt. Matt pulled out the guitar and laid it on the sofa, and got another guitar from the bedroom much to Philip's amazement as he tried to piece together what Matt was planning much to Matt's amusement. What he was doing (or planning to do) seemed so obvious; he was surprised that he hadn't guessed it already, but then again sometimes something could be staring you in the face and you'd be completely oblivious to you.

"I can teach you," Matt offered smiling as he felt somewhat relived that he had already done all his marking in advance, and maybe this would be the start of building a relationship with Philip. Philip's face brightened as a small glint in his eye captured the light of the room, his eyebrows quirked up in amazement and astonishment.

"Really? You'd do that?" He said, and Matt shrugged, perhaps Philip's keen interest in music and learning to play the guitar would be the key to the show-choirs success, he like Philip could only hope that everything could work out for the show-choir, because at the moment things weren't looking too good for him or his choir.

"Yeah sure," he said smiling. Philip smiled in return, and it wasn't one of those awkward teenager smiles either where the teenager doesn't know whether to smile or not, it was a real genuine smile that Matt himself worried. He gave Philip one of the guitars and started teaching him the basic chords. He was a surprisingly quick learner, hours evolved into minutes and minutes morphed into seconds, time seemed never-ending, infinite.

Neither of them wanted to stop, despite the fact that their conscious was arguing with them from lack of sleep, but after looking at his watch for the umpteenth time that evening Matt knew that if he didn't drag himself away from his guitar then they'd never be able to stop. Playing the guitar was strangely addictive, and given half the chance he'd happily play it all night, but that wasn't really a good idea… Thank goodness it was Friday though at least he wouldn't have to drag anyone (including himself) out of bed in the morning.

Philip- very reluctantly may I add agreed to stop playing and go to bed, he must've been tired Matt thought to himself as he hadn't adopted the argumentative role that most teenagers had mastered.

* * *

Rachel Mason woke up the next morning with a pounding headache, she clutched her head as she tried to muffle the sound thinking it was come from the next room, it took a few moments for her to realise that it was coming from inside her head, and it seemed to be getting louder ever passive second.

She blinked a couple of times before observing and analysing her surroundings, _where was she?_ She thought to herself, as the beige walls and clear floor looked foreign to her, then she realised that there was only one place she could be; the hospital, the only place that could be considered 'too clean,.' She had hated hospitals since she was a little kid and her opinions hadn't changed, she hated the fact that it was so clean; the cleanliness of the place was what Rachel disliked the most, it looked imagery, unreal and it most certainly didn't look lived in.

_Where was she last?_ She asked herself as her thoughts rattled in her memory as she tried to recollect her thoughts; her last memory was at Waterloo Road, she was talking to Philip, yes that was right, they had discussed his mother; her sister, the conversation both of them avoided like the plague, _but how on Earth had she landed in hospital? Again? _

"Oh, your awake," the nurse said in a friendly tone, Rachel continued to rub her head as questions started to rise up her throat, there were so many things she needed to know, but there was so little time, how long had she been in hospital? Where was Philip staying? Who was taking care of the school?

"Why am I here?" She asked and this seemed like the obvious question in the world, but the answer was completely oblivious to her.

"Anxiety attacks, you fainted Miss Mason," the nurse said briskly.

"Who's looking after Philip?" Was her next question, and it was the one that needed the most urgent answer, had he gone to care? She couldn't bear if anything happened to him; he was her only nephew, and part of the little family she had left.

"Uh," for once the nurse looked at lost for words and she lost her professional interior, "the people who bought you in said they'd come back when you woke up, they told us to inform us straight away when you woke up," she said before grabbing her phone and dialling the number.

This only confused Rachel further who had bought her in? When exactly was this? For all she knew she could've been out for hours, days, weeks or even months… She wanted to ask further but the nurse was already on the phone and she refused to give any hints about the identity of the person she was talking to away, which only agitated Rachel more.

"He's coming in an hour or so," she said, and Rachel felt her stomach twist with butterflies, it was a he, but what exactly did that tell her? Her first thought was that it was Eddie, but why would it be him? They had said their goodbyes almost a week ago, no, the chances were it would be someone else, it could be anyone else… But no-one else made her stomach flip like Eddie did.

The hour passed slowly and the figure made her way into the room, Rachel hated being confided into her room, without anything to be getting on with, she felt useless, helpless, and the only company she had was her overactive mind.

"Chris!" She said smiling at her colleague who came into view.

"Hi Rachel," he said grinning from ear to ear, he didn't know why he was grinning so much, he had been expecting this sight, but hearing it and seeing it was too different things.

"So…" she asked before ushering the nurse away, she was sure that the nurse wouldn't approve of any work related conversations, "where's Philip?" She asked with a hit of worry in her tone.

"Philip is fine, Matt's looking after him," Chris said smiling as he realised how awkward the situation would be if Philip ended up in the care system, Rachel would've been able to forgive them on the outside, but inside she would blame them all and most importantly she would blame themselves.

"Is he?" Rachel asked astonished at her good fortune, "that's great," she said smiling, as her worries started to fade slowly into nothingness. "What about Waterloo Road?" She asked, Chris grimaced, she had only been in hospital for a day and the LEA hadn't had time to find a suitable replacement, hopefully one would be sorted out by Monday; if they were lucky.

"Well the LEA needs to get an acting head for the time being," he said and this hit Rachel like a ton of bricks as she gave a small cry of outrage.

"How long will I be here then?" She said quickly her voice strained.

"About two weeks, or one I don't know, you were overworking," Chris said awkwardly before shrugging as if to apologise, "but right now Tom, Kim and I are taking care of everything," he said trying to relive her of her worries.

"Thank you," she said softly before planting a soft kiss on Chris' lips, he responded slowly surprised at the gesture, the kiss lasted only seconds and Chris wondered if he had just experienced those fireworks that always seemed to appear in romantic films. The kiss was like a science experiment, there was a spark, but whether or not it meant anything was a different matter completely. They broke away sheepishly as the door was opened by the nurse, who looked bemused at the sight.

"Miss Mason, there is someone who answers to the name of James Fenshaw on the phone," she said holding out the phone and Rachel inwardly gasped, it couldn't be after all these years could it? Was her brother trying to get in contact with her after all these years? And how had he managed to track her down?

* * *

**A/N Rachel & Chris kissed Yup, just randomly inserted a bit of Rhris there. Did you enjoy reading it? What did you like reading about the best? Personally I loved writing the Matt & Philip bonding scene! :) Rachel's replacement will be announced in the next chapter & James will make an appearance. **

**What would you like to happen next? Who should be Rachel's replacement? (they can be from ANY series.) Would you like more Matt & Philip scenes?**

**Please review! It makes my day!**


	10. Chapter 10

"Remember I told you about that guy from teacher training? Michael Byrne?" Linda asked as she continued to make tea in the small room that Melissa found herself living in almost a week after she left her old life behind them. Melissa shook her head; she had no recollection of Linda mentioning someone called Michael Byrne, before but the name still felt oddly familiar.

"No, why?" Melissa asked slowly as she inspected her nails, it didn't look like this conversation would be getting more exciting any time soon, but she didn't have any more time to ponder on the thought for at that moment an epiphany soared through her brain; that was it; Michael Byrne was name of the guy she had bumped into after seeing Richard… Now if Linda ever found out about what happened then, this conversation would be even more awkward.

"He got a gig," Linda exclaimed excitedly and Melissa struggled to follow, a gig? Wasn't that what musicians and bands had? She looked at Linda curiously, and Linda took this as a gesture to continue, "he's going to be the acting head for two weeks whilst the current head is in hospital," she gabbled excitedly and Melissa looked back with no emotion, showing emotion was a sign of weakness even though all she wanted to do was show happiness for Linda.

"What school?" She asked at this was the first moment where Linda looked almost at loss for words as she debated whether to tell Melissa the truth or a lie…

"Waterloo Road," Linda finally said and the words echoed in her head; Waterloo Road? Did that mean Rachel was in hospital? What about Eddie? What would happen to Philip if his Aunt was in hospital? Things started to spiral downwards after this point, her main thought being; what had happened to Rachel? She wanted to visit her sister and assure her that everything would be okay, but everything was the furthest thing from okay at the moment.

She couldn't show her face to her sister, she was afraid of what the outcome of her visit would be, she hadn't been greeted with cards and flowers the last time anyone had seen her, so why would anything have changed just because her sister was in hospital? "Oh," she managed to splutter, before getting her phone and doing the one thing she could think of, the right thing to do; not just for her but for Rachel too. "James are you there?" She said talking into the phone and ushering Linda away, it was now or never, make or break time.

* * *

James Fenshaw; if you could even call him that was a secretive man to say the least, very few people knew his real name and even fewer knew about his past, in his eyes if people knew about your past, they knew your weakness, and in this day and age you couldn't trust anyone, your best friend could turn out to be your biggest enemy, and this wasn't a risk he was prepared to take.

It was a surprise indeed when his phone rang, and an unknown number flickered on the screen, he was surprised but his face remained emotionless, he didn't move even an inch apart from making that single, solitary swift movement to retrieve his phone from inside his pocket.

"James," a voice said the voice spoke briskly, and James spent just moments trying to work out who the owner of the voice was, it couldn't be anyone from his company, that was for sure, but the most worrying thing of all was that the person knew him but he didn't know them. Another strange thing was that they called him 'James' his real name, yet the one he seldom used; over the years he had built up over a million fake identities and he had reached the point where they had all blurred into one. "James, it's me Melissa," the voice said, and a light bulb went off in James' head, it was Melissa his sister but why had she bothered to contact him after all these years?

"Melissa," he said silently, "what a nice surprise," he said but the words were false, foreign even as he said them, he had said his goodbyes to his family years ago, he had left the life of a foolish, naïve boy behind him, but as soon as he heard the words memories flooded back in his brain.

"Enough with the formalities James," Melissa said briskly, "I need your help," she said and it was only then that the shadow of doubt echoed in her brain; what if he didn't agree to her plan?

"I can't guarantee anything," James said shortly.

"James, its Rach-Amanda she hates me," Melissa said sobbing, as she hastily corrected herself midway through the sentence, "I've done something unforgivable," she said and James remained even more confused.

"What do you want me to do about it?" James asked irritably, as he analysed his constantly changing appearance, he was wearing a thick overcoat, a hat, and thick glasses; hopefully his disguise would be able to fool anyone, he grabbed his briefcase as he waited for his sister's reply. But could he really call her his sister? They hadn't spoken for years, and family was meant to be there for one another.

But none of his family had been there since he was ten; he was nine when it all began to fall apart. His mother died when he was nine, Melissa was fourteen and Amanda was the eldest at sixteen. His dad stopped caring about them; it was a common sight in those days to see him clutching a bottle of alcohol in his hands, the responsibility of looking after everyone was passed onto Amanda. She didn't get a choice in the matter; she was still just a kid with exams to pass, but she never complained not once. But things started to get steadily worse when Amanda was kicked out the house; the time had come for him and Melissa to learn to fend for themselves.

"Contact her," Melissa said simply.

"Why?" James asked confused; why was it all up to him?

"She's built up an invisible wall separating herself from the real world, and you're her little brother," Melissa said coaxingly.

"I'm not so little anymore," James stated emotionless, "fine, but I expect something in return," he said shortly, a plan forming in his mind now was a perfect opportunity to ask for something he never dared to ask.

"Fine," Melissa said with lightened thoughts she gave him Rachel's number, "she calls herself Rachel Mason now," she added carelessly but there was one last thing to ask, but she couldn't bring herself to ask, she tossed a coin in the air; heads she would ask; tails she wouldn't, it was heads she took a deep breath and continued. "James could I borrow some money?" She said confiding in him.

James sighed, was this what had happened to his family? He only talked to them when they phoned only with the cheek to ask him for favours, "why? And how much?" He said carelessly.

"A couple of thousand," Melissa said, before finally breaking down, "Richard wants the money," she said, hopefully this would be a good enough of excuse, James knew Richard so to him it would be a plausible reason.

James groaned, how had she gotten herself into this position? Why was Richard demanding money? The last he had heard of Melissa she had gotten married with another guy; a guy who certainly wasn't Richard. Was she still married to Richard or had she divorced him? "Richard? I thought you divorced him," he began.

"No, he wouldn't let me-," Melissa began hopelessly, this was the truth however unbelievable it may sound, "and he's blackmailing me," she said sadly as she couldn't contain the truth any longer, things would get far worse when he realised that there was a possibility she was pregnant, that meant that there was all the more reason to sort this out sooner rather than later.

"Go to the police," James said.

"James! I've been married twice and no divorce to speak of, I could go to prison," Melissa said sadly realising how impossible her situation seemed.

"Well divorce the other guy," he said simply, he made it sound so simple; but it was anything but simple, it was a good idea, but Melissa hadn't spoken to the guy she married for years, she didn't know where he worked, for all she knew he could have a family; his name was Max, and when they unofficially broke up she changed her surname back to Ryan.

"I don't know where he works anymore," Melissa said.

"It's easy to track people down," James said shrugging, it was simple tracking people down was part of his job, in just a few short seconds he would have all the information he needed about Amanda; Rachel Mason. Melissa didn't reply, and he took this as a signal to bring this conversation to an end, "I'll contact her," he said before exiting the call, today was just another regular day at work for James Fenshaw and his many identities.

He called Amanda, Rachel he said to himself as he hastily corrected himself, she was at hospital, yet another thing Melissa had forgotten to inform him, he drove to the hospital in silence, and took the glasses, hat and an overcoat off before making his way inside. When he got there, he saw his sister talking to someone, his ears perked up as he caught snippets of their conversation.

"Chris I-I'm sorry," Rachel said humbly feeling ashamed of her earlier actions, "I shouldn't have done that…" She said humbly, "can we just put the kiss behind us and pretend it never happened, I'm not ready," she said, and James' thoughts were rattling; who was Chris?

"It's okay," the other figure, Chris said trying to avoid showing any emotion on his face, "I understand," he said as he received a text message, "the LEA have found a replacement for the time being, I need to meet up with him okay?" He said leaning in to kiss her on the forehead, "the school will be okay you'll see," he promised before swiftly exiting the room.

"James," Rachel recognised him immediately as soon as she caught sight of the figure lurking outside her room in the half light.

"Amanda, I mean Rachel, well I hear that is what you are known by now," James said swiftly, she looked at him questioningly as if to say; _why are you here_? And he continued to pour out the fake story he had invented only minutes before, "I was in town, and I remembered seeing this newspaper," he said holding out two newspapers; the first was of the fire nearly a year ago when her secret had been revealed and the second was centred around when there was a gun in the school. "I haven't had a chance up until now work means that I have to travel away a lot." He said vaguely as he tried to figure out how Melissa's plan was going to work, how on Earth would Rachel confide in someone that she hadn't seen for almost sixteen years?

"Oh where do you work?" Rachel began but James shook his head, "have you got married, kids?" She said trying again, once again refusing to speak.

"What about you?" James asked looking Rachel directly in the eye, she turned his head and refused to meet his gaze.

"Nope, I guess that makes two of us then, I look after Philip, Mel's son though," she said but she refused to say anymore, silence dominated the conversation as James struggled to think of something to say without giving too much away. Soon it was time to for James to go, he promised he would return; but both of them doubted that this would be the case, he left Rachel confused and flummoxed why had he visited out of the blue? Philip and Matt were her last visitors of the day and she was very glad to hear that he was settling in just fine with Matt, fatigue fell over her after Philip left and it was all she could do to keep her eyes open.

* * *

**A/N Hey everyone I hoped you enjoyed reading this chapter! What did you think of James? And will Melissa be able to successfully able to have a divorce from her first husband; Max? What do you think James' job is? Any ideas for James' backstory please tell me! :) **

**Next chapter; Michael is in charge of the school for a week, but his week is disrupted when Rachel returns despite the doctors warnings... **

**Please review it makes my day! Could we possibly get fifty reviews? **


	11. Chapter 11

Chris and Tom were both running the school until the replacement came in, and over the course of the past two weeks they still like the rest of the staff continued to call him 'the replacement' as long as he wouldn't prove to be a threat to the school or Rachel's job they'd get on just fine. The replacement was called Michael; Michael Byrne, and he was fresh out of teacher training, he slipped into the job pretty well, he didn't let on whether he wanted to make any changes or not, after all that wasn't his job, he was only there to ensure that the school ran like clockwork.

He was a likeable teacher and Chris got on well with him due to the fact that he was also a science teacher, as a result he always took an apparent interest in his plans for the science lessons and the experiments he was planning out. They were all sad (well not all sad) to see him go, and Chris wondered if he could persuade Rachel to hire him as a science teacher, the school was always short on science teachers to his extent of knowledge.

* * *

Rachel didn't understand and she wasn't even going to pretend that she did, her life and her family life had fallen apart when she was sixteen, sixteen was a turning point in her life, and sixteen was the age where everything changed. Her mother died of cancer, and moments before she died everything changed, for good, secrets were revealed secrets that changed everything; nothing would be the same ever again.

Even as child her father had always favoured Melissa and James, but what her mother told her just before she died told her exactly why that was, after her mother died her dad pretty much ignored of, he dealt with his pain by consuming alcohol and it was up to her to be a guardian for Melissa and James. A social life was out of the question, she ended up missing loads of time of school because of her job, and making sure that Melissa and James were okay. In her eyes making money and looking after her siblings was that of higher priority of school work, she was expelled and that was her first strike.

That was her father's rule; three strikes and you're out, he didn't see his own faults or rather he refused to see them he only saw her faults, she was getting punished for mother's mistake… But who would have thought it? The head-teacher of a failing school was expelled from her old school, which certainly turned the tables a bit when you put her entire life in perspective.

She couldn't help but notice how incredibly strange James was acting, it seemed obvious that he too had made mistakes as a result of his past, she couldn't blame him for not telling her what they were, she hadn't wanted to tell people about her past either; why would she make a big effort to keep her identity a secret otherwise?

She was stuck in the hospital for another two weeks, Matt and Philip visited her on numerous occasions. Chris visited also trying to bury the hatchet of the kiss, which may or mayn't have meant something; her thoughts were too perplexed to even think about the possibility of dating her deputy, again, only this time it was a different deputy.

* * *

Philip was happy today he would be going; home, and in the few short weeks of living there that was what he called it, it was a perfect synopsis of the place, he had really enjoyed staying with Matt and the two had bonded over their love of music, but it wasn't the same, sometimes Matt would struggle of something to say but Rachel always knew what to say at the right time and that was the main difference between the two.

The most exciting part of the two weeks of staying with Matt was most certainly learning to play the guitar and he was surprised by how much he had grasped in the two weeks, he had even tried song writing and Matt assured him that he was a natural already. They had already decided to continue with the guitar lessons as long as it was alright by Rachel, but it was one of the few things that would let Philip forget all his worries about school, his mum and fitting in. In the past two busy weeks he had almost forgotten that his birthday was drawing near. They made their way to the hospital and when they went in Philip was enveloped into a hug, and Matt stood awkwardly moving from side to side before bidding farewell to the two.

Philip once again said thank you to Matt, and he had been gracious enough before going home, but Matt didn't have a clue at how much Philip thought he was in debt to the teacher, this teacher was responsible for giving him guitar lessons and making one of his dreams come true, and even better than that Matt had specifically asked him to co-write the song for the performance at the end of term! Likewise Matt to was grateful to Philip after all if this never happened, then he wouldn't have realised the most important thing of all; Philip had a talent for song-writing and he was blissfully oblivious to his talent.

"Philip we can go home," Rachel exclaimed excitedly like a kid on Christmas, "did you have a nice stay with Matt?" She asked curiously.

"Yeah, I'm learning to play the guitar and he's helping me to improve my song writing skills," Philip said happily which caused Rachel to reconsider her next sentence she was going to ask whether or not his mother had ever told him about James but she couldn't help to bring herself to burst his bubble that his family was far from perfect.

"That's nice," Rachel said absentmindedly, "so how's school been?" She asked, and Philip nodded in response, she didn't pressure him to say anything more she was just happy to be returning to the place she could safely call home.

* * *

Melissa didn't know what she was going to do, she had been forced into a checkmate position, and there were only a few moves she could make without losing the game completely and this time it wasn't just any game it was the game of life. James had assured her that it would be easy to track her first husband; Max, but she wasn't so sure, but she kept her doubts hidden.

She typed his name into a Google search 'Max Tyler' but as predicted thousands of results came up, none of them relevant for the person she was looking for, why did he have to have such a common name? Why couldn't he have some sort of unusual name? That would make the task of tracking him down so much easier. There only seemed one option left to do; phone her brother, and as much as she hated depending on people this was the only thing she could do, or thought she could do anyway, well except for going to the police.

"James," she asked.

"What?" He said irritably, the meeting with his sister hadn't gone according to plan, and now he knew that he would be treading in a minefield if he wasn't careful, it would only take one slip of the tongue and his whole identity would be revealed.

"Look," Melissa said awkwardly, "I need a favour, can you track Max down for me?" She asked and James gave a sharp intake of breath.

"Why me?" James asked.

"You sounded like you were an expert that's all," Melissa said in a flattering tone, as a child she'd always used flattery to get her own way and it was surprising how many full grown adults fell for her flattery even now. If this didn't work she didn't know what would work.

"Okay but that's two favours you owe me Mel," James said and Melissa agreed even though she didn't know what the deals were going to be, they could be anything but unlike most people Melissa's mind never ran riot and her thoughts were positively optimistic and calm.

"Deal," Melissa said but she was unsure about how much that one word would alter her life forever, "bye," she said ending the call and flipping it shut. She later learned from Linda that her sister was returning to work; Linda was now her main source for all information relating to Waterloo Road, her sister and her son, after all Michael would tell Linda who would tell her. Good news travelled fast after all.

* * *

Rachel returned to work the next day, she was greeted by smiles from teachers and pupils alike, hopefully the school would run like clockwork but since when were things ever simple in Waterloo Road? She was also glad that she had slipped back into a friendship with Chris; they worked well together although he would always be seen as second best in comparison, but as far as replacements went he was a good one.

"So what did I miss?" She asked as she sat on the couch in the office and gestured for Chris to sit next to her, she liked making the situation as informal as possible, even with the rising tension between the two.

"Nothing much," Chris joked before informing her of all the happenings in Waterloo Road and as instructed there wasn't a single detail that he missed out. "The choir is doing great," he added changing the subject to one of a lighter subject matter, "Matt was saying that he might ask Philip to help co-write an original song," he continued happily.

Rachel smiled, "yeah, I heard," she lied as she hid her true emotion that she was slightly annoyed that Philip hadn't told her something as important to this, "it'll certainly be something to look forward to at the end of term," she said with a note of finality in her tone, as she gave Chris a quick hug before standing up and composing herself before faltering for a moment as the thought of kissing him briefly occurred to her. But she couldn't help but shake the feeling that someone was watching her.

* * *

"Eddie?" Eddie Lawson picked up his phone and recognised Melissa's voice in a heartbeat but he wasn't particularly pleased to hear her. Melissa had figured out, with the help of Linda and Michael who informed her that there was no-one called "Eddie Lawson," working at Waterloo Road. This gave her all the information she needed; he had left, and that had been the catalyst in the reaction, and on top of her argument with Rachel this resulted in her ending up in hospital.

"What?" Eddie said irritably.

"I know you left Waterloo Road, but you really need to return," Melissa pleaded.

"Why?" Eddie asked maintaining his irritable tone.

"Good Gosh, Rachel needs you, you have to be an idiot not to see that, and you were meant to be for each other," Melissa said her frank honesty seeping through her words.

"Okay, okay," Eddie said struggling to keep up, "but if you knew all this, why did you date me in the first place?" He asked.

"One of my mad cap schemes didn't work out," Melissa said, "please, I don't know why you even bothered proposing to me," she continued before checking her watch and realising she was going on a tangent, "but Rachel's returning today from hospital, and just ask for your job back," she said simply.

"How do you know I left? And how do you know that Rachel was in hospital?" Eddie asked.

"I have my sources," Melissa said mysteriously before hanging up and ending the call.

That was how a few hours later Eddie was standing outside Waterloo Road sighing as he held his briefcase by his side, he knew he had some pretty major grovelling to do, to the staff, to Philip and most importantly to Rachel. He as many people had already guessed lied about the job, after all the long and short of it was that there was no job, it had simply been an illusion, dream, a figment of imagination perhaps. He had made a mistake even considering leaving the place, and he had regretted that decision from the moment he walked out that door as his time at Waterloo Road flashed before his very eyes.

He looked up towards the heads office that was directly adjacent to him if he tilted his head upward just a little bit, but he wasn't expecting what he saw, Rachel was there as expected but there was another man; which Eddie assumed was his replacement, and they were hugging. It sounded strange to hear the words; his replacement, but then he hastened to remind himself, he was the one who decided to leave not Rachel or anyone else. But it seemed so disheartening to know that she had gotten over him so quickly, he thought they had a spark when they were together but apparently he was wrong.

He didn't know why he even bothered to carry out Melissa's request but he felt somewhat obliged too, after all she was right in some respect, and despite her faults she was still trying to correct her mistakes, and the question of why she was doing that seemed an almost unanswerable question.

He was ready to return and face his faults but the question was; was he ready to return to Waterloo Road for good?

* * *

**A/N Hope you liked the chapter! **

**Okay, anyway I've decided that there will be three parts of this story;;**

**Part I**: _From Melissa's departure to her return at the end of s4 (1/2 chapters left)_

**Part II:** _From Melissa leaving (end of s4) to the baby being born (christmas time s5)_

**Part II:** _Rachel & Eddie looking after the baby. _

**So question; would you like each part to be three different stories or a continuation of this story?**

**Please review it makes my day! And I've just watched up to episode ten of series 5 brilliant so far, Max is horrible, Chris punched Max, Chris and Rachel kissed, Philip kissed Ros, Bolton did a rap about Grantly, Jo sang at the Waterloo Road's got talent, and Kim is pregnant with Max' baby! (this is why the old series is so much better!) What's your favourite series 5 eps 1-10 memory? **


	12. Chapter 12

If this was a movie this would be Rachel's cue to spot Eddie from the corner of her eye and rush out to greet him whilst he pulled her into a tight embrace, however as a matter of fact she did spot Eddie but instead of rushing out and leaping into his arms, she stood awkwardly in front of the school building without saying a word.

"You came back," she said after several moments of silence, she tried to collect her thoughts, was she glad that he had returned? Or was she annoyed that he was threatening to destroy the pieces of her life she had started to rebuild? Eddie just nodded in reply, two steps forward were taken; and one step back it was almost as if they were rehearsing the quick step or the cha-cha. Neither of them knew how to react around the other's presence; they had both missed each other deeply but were determined to keep their emotions hidden from sight.

"I'm sorry," the two said unison as the last syllable spoken fell with a chime as it hit the ground, "you go first," Eddie said after a few moments of silence.

"Well, I should've been more open; about well everything; my feelings, my past…" Rachel said trailing off as she finished with a note of sincerity in her tone, "and you?"

"Leaving was a big mistake it was like running away from the problem instead of facing it, it was the coward's option, I blew up at you for no reason, and I blamed you for my mistakes, and I-," He continued babbling on but he never got to finish, even though his sentence was left unfinished he had already spoken all the words that needed to be said.

"You are a man of many words but not the right ones, why are you here?" Rachel asked, although she could pretty much guess why, what was the point of listening to him babble on when the words meant next to nothing to her? But even as she spoke the words with a note of authority in her tone, she couldn't help but wring her hands together as she waited for him to reply.

"I-I, missed you…" Eddie said slowly, "you, Philip, this place, the staff," he said listing all things that without them his life was incomplete, he then did something he thought he would never do in a million years; well since that day where everything began to fall apart anyway, he kissed her gently, in response to his rash action Rachel responded, gently at first as metaphoric fireworks exploded into the air.

They broke away quickly after a few moments after feeling the limelight thrown upon them as they saw the entire staffroom, Chris and some of the classes peering at them through the windows as if they were some unknown species.

"Um," Rachel began blushing slightly, "do you want to come in and sort this mess out?" She asked and Eddie obliged her request, the sooner they sorted out this mess the better. Chris was waiting for at the entrance of the main door, and he shot her a perplexed expression before turning to his attention to Eddie.

"Chris this is Eddie the former deputy head, Eddie this is Chris a new science teacher," she said quickly, deliberately choosing not to include the fact that Chris was Eddie's replacement, in her eyes this discussion was like ripping of a plaster the faster you did it the less it hurts. Chris' eyebrows quirked up suddenly.

"So you're the famous Eddie I've heard so much about?" He asked quietly, as he remembered the many discussions he had shared with Steph and Tom, who had both let Eddie's name slip out of their tongues on several occasions.

"Yes and we've got a few things we need to discuss," Rachel said, "so if you'd please just-," she started before stopping abruptly, as she reminded herself what she was about to say, could she really ask him to leave just like that? The long and short of it was Chris had been there for the past few months, Eddie on the other hand had disappeared from the face of the Earth, and she felt somewhat obliged not to turn her back on him just because Eddie had returned. "Well you can stay if you want to," she said hastily knowing how awkward it would be if he did stay…

"No, no," Chris said somewhat horrified, he didn't want to get up in this tangled mess which was the love triangle between Rachel her sister and Eddie, "I've got a lesson to prepare," he said quickly dodging back into the building and out of sight.

"That's my replacement?" Eddie said smiling. "My, my your standards have dropped Miss Mason," he said in a joking manner.

"I'll have you know that he used to work at John Foster's, back there he was the icing on the cake, but here he is the cherry on the top," she said but her statement only puzzled Eddie further, something didn't seem quite right, and he was determined to find out what was wrong with the situation.

"Why did he leave if he was the icing on the cake?" Eddie asked and it trigged the thought to go off in Rachel's brain, although they had discussed a lot over the course of the past few weeks they had never reached the topic of why he had come here in the middle of the term, when he had a perfectly good and well paid job and John Foster's…

The two spent the afternoon, talking, and it was like the two were seeing each other with open eyes, and soon Eddie was once again given the position of being head of maths; although he knew for a fact that he'd have to wait a awhile before being awarded the position of deputy head with Chris as his main competitor. Rachel contacted the LEA with a note of happiness with his tone, and they were over the moon to reappoint Eddie much like Rachel herself. Things were finally going back to normal.

Months passed in the blink of an eye, Eddie was half afraid of the conversations he would have to endure about how he lost his imaginary job but the staff (even Steph) seemed somewhat understanding, and they didn't seem to suspect a thing. Soon it was nearing the end of term, a very busy term to say the least, Philip had co-written the song for the show choir, and they would be performing in just a few weeks.

* * *

Nothing much had happened in the past few months for Melissa, she hadn't heard a single, solitary word from James so as a result he hadn't given the money and she was avoiding Richard like the plague one thing was sure avoiding people wasn't that easy when you had a job where you saw millions of people on a regular basis. She was most certainly pregnant, and she did her very best to hide her growing baby bump, but all it would take was for one slip of the tongue and everyone would know.

Richard entered the supermarket later that day, "Melissa have you got the money?" He asked glaring at Melissa with open eyes before turning his attention to the growing baby bump that Melissa had unsuccessfully tried to hide.

"Nope," Melissa said seeing no point but to answer the question, dodging it would only deepen his temper.

"Interest rates have increased you now owe me £10, 000," he said and he was about to walk away without giving Melissa a chance to protest, but he wasn't quite finished yet, "and you will pay me, or else," he said.

"But how am I supposed to pay that amount of money?"

"You will find a way," Richard said, "but I can see you're pregnant, and I can easily claim that you are an unfit mother, and the baby is mine," he finished with a note of finality in his tone, "after all we are still married," he said.

"But, you're blackmailing me!" Melissa said outraged, "you can't do that… I'll… I'll go to the police," she threatened but they both knew that she wouldn't dare do that, especially when she could just as easily be put in prison because of her past, but this was a threat, and if she didn't keep up her side of the bargain both she and the baby would be at risk of danger.

"I wouldn't do that," Richard said before walking away with a smug expression on his face, leaving Melissa to collect her thoughts. After a long night of debating what to do she finally came to a decision; it was a big risk, but it was her only option, tomorrow she would be returning to Waterloo Road for one last time.

And that was how the next day Melissa was standing at the entrance of Waterloo Road, almost two terms had passed since she first left, and her original plan was to use those two terms to get herself back on her feet, however only a week after her departure and her plans were already starting to fall to pieces.

She still remembered that dreaded day, when the pregnancy test marked 'positive,' at first it seemed obvious that the father was Eddie, but it was only until she let her thoughts delve deeper that she began to suspect that although Eddie was the obvious suspect it didn't necessarily mean that it was his child.

She looked back at her watch nervously, this was the most dreaded day of her life, she was here for one reason to inform Eddie, Rachel and Philip of her plans, then she would have the baby and she would let Eddie and Rachel bring up the child of her own, she was far too much of a risk, and she would simply but the child in danger.

She wasn't even sure if the baby was Eddie's, the baby could just as easily be Michael's, she would never know for sure, if Michael was the father, it would make no difference since she had none of his details, and she wasn't even sure what his surname was, Eddie would bring the child up under the impression that he was the father, but that couldn't be helped.

"Rachel," she called running through the building, she passed Eddie on the way but he was just a blur and she couldn't be sure that it was him, as he seemed to have aged considerably in the past few months. Her sister looked at her, with darkened eyes, which kept even the smallest shimmer of light hidden.

"Melissa, what are you doing here?" She was looking at her watch, with a small smile on her face and Melissa didn't even have to ponder who it was from, since the person who it was from may have written his name on the back it was so obvious, Eddie always did like to surprise her with little gifts, it was one of his many quirks.

"Rachel, I'm so sorry…" Melissa babbled aimlessly.

"You're pregnant," Rachel stated as her face remained blank.

"I am, but, but if Richard finds me he'll take the baby away…"

"Wait," Rachel's brow furrowed, "when did you last see Richard?"

"A few months ago, he tried to blackmail me, but I refused, now he's going to take the baby away," Melissa said as she broke down into tears, and settled down on the sofa with her sister doing her best to comfort her.

"Mel, why don't you go to the police?"

"I can't…" Melissa sobbed, the same thought had occurred to her just a few months ago, but although the idea seemed brilliant in theory, in action Richard assured her it wouldn't work, "Richard… has friends in the police, and his friends who are highly praised would convince everyone that I was lying."

"Oh, Mel what can I do?"

"That's where you, Eddie and Philip come in," Melissa said, "I want you to bring up the child as your own, whilst I try and sort this mess out, you and Eddie will make wonderful parents," she swallowed as she finally let herself admit the truth to herself, "and tell Philip and Eddie the truth about why I left, I don't want to put anyone in danger but myself," Melissa stated, and Rachel was shocked, Melissa was giving up everything… for nothing.

"But Mel, there has to be something we can do," Rachel pleaded.

"No, Rach this is the only way," Mel said sternly trying to avoid letting her sister think that there was another way, because although there could be another way it would only end up with one of the people closest to her getting caught, "there is one more thing though…"

"What is it?" Rachel asked as her sisters gaze fell to the floor as she looked somewhat ashamed.

"That night, where I broke up with Eddie, I made a stupid mistake, and I'm not entirely sure whether the baby's Eddie's," Melissa admitted truthfully, "but even if the baby isn't Eddie's I want Eddie to act like a father figure, so that the baby can have the best start in life." Melissa left after that, leaving Rachel to break the news to Philip and Eddie. She told the whole story to them, but she left the whole 'the baby might not be Eddie's' incident out, since she could tell by the sincerity in Melissa's voice that, that was just a silly mistake.

"Oh, Mel," Rachel said sympathetically, before gesturing for Eddie to come forward as Melissa left the scene with nothing more to say, she explained the situation to Eddie successfully managing to leave the whole 'it might not be your son/daughter' scenario.

"So she got blackmailed?" Eddie said predictably, "why didn't she go to the police?"

"I told you," Rachel said annoyed that she had to repeat herself over and over, "Richard has some hold over the police."

"Do you mean, that's it? Richard wins end of story?" Eddie said, "We can't let him get away with this," he said swinging the door out and marching out of the building.

"Eddie please, Melissa's sacrificing herself for the chance of the baby's happiness, if we do something now then Richard will keep his eyes on her and then the baby will never be safe, that's the whole point of this to keep the baby away from Richard," Rachel finished trying to soothe Eddie, she wasn't happy about this either, but she had no other option but to go with Melissa's plans. This was most certainly going to be an interesting year.

* * *

**A/N Okay please review, and this is the last chapter of; Always second Best, there will be a continuation up shortly, I hope you enjoyed it! (: And for one last time please review it makes my day!**


	13. Acknowledgements

**Okay so we've reached the end of 'Always Second Best' and without further ado thank you to all the people who reviewed/ favourited/ and added this story to alerts over the past few months: **

* * *

_**Thank you to all those who this favourited this story:**_

Wr1

Rosie. Sound

Miss. Ceri

* * *

_**Second of all thank you to all those who adding this story to alerts:**_

Wr1

Miss. Ceri

Rosie. Sound

Writingwhat'sonmymind

ReddieFan25

Amyloulou29

Lowkare

* * *

_**And thirdly a special thank you to all those who reviewed: **_

Lowkare

Reddiefan25

StellaPriceFan

Rosie. Sound

Miss. Ceri

Wr1

Sarahabc0598

I-wish-upon-falling-stars/ NothinglefttosayImagineDragons

Evapopelover

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Megz

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**And finally thank you to every single person that clicked on this story! The next story; 'Second best always' (see what I did with the title?) should be uploaded either tonight or tomorrow. And please say if I've missed you out because I'm forgetful, I don't think I have though :| My computer took the task of randomly deleting some of the names on this list :(**


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